The Human Blade
by Kuyugen
Summary: KakaNaru, ItaNaru. 3 months after the Akatsuki extermination, problems still abound for 'Fox' soon-to-be-Hokage and recently admitted into the ANBU. His squad captain Kakashi is going mad, his team is acting up, and war looms on more than one horizon.
1. Rookie

* * *

The Human Blade

AN: Something I've been working on in my vacation. I have a very bad track record with completing stories, I doubt this one will be finished, either. But it might get long before I despair and delete it, so. Not a good reason for you to continue, eh?

Chapter I

* * *

When one has been in the business for long enough, you start to see all people as weapons.

You look over their height and start to guess what techniques they specialize in.

(How long? How broad? A tanto, a wakizashi, a katana...)

You examine their muscle tone and the way they move.

(How thick? Thick enough? Too thick? Too thin? Will it bend?... Will it break?)

You see their clothes and colors and guess at their personalities, the way it affects their battle style.

(Metal type? Decoration? Tilt of blade? What's that hook for- does it affect the swing?

It's a stealth weapon, the metal doesn't gleam.)

You check their faces, their normal expression, they way the smile, frown, grimace- and look for their weaknesses and handholds.

(Where must it be hit to break? Where do I hold it so it doesn't cut me? How must I wield it for maximum efficiency?

But never look into their eyes. Approach them, befriend them, seduce them, but never become their weapons.

(Don't touch the edge... touch it, grasp it, wield it, but never let it control you. You are the wielder. Not them.)

An ANBU captain must have the eyes. It is no doujutsu, chakra is not involved. An ANBU captain has to see the potential of their subordinates, what they can do, what they can't do, and what they must never, ever be ordered to do. An ANBU captain... is in control.

Hatake Kakashi nearly lost that control when the rookie walked in through the door.

The hair. They eyes, that shone through the holes in his mask. (A blank, of course, the animal markings were added after the captain assessed the rookie.) Even though Kakashi couldn't see his face, he knew. The hair was exactly the same, and the electricity of the blue eyes told it all.

It was Namikaze Naruto. Sixteen years, nine months and twenty days old. Kakashi kept track of the days that had gone by since the Kyuubi attack- and the boy had been born just then. The boy he'd carefully kept away from, even when he was younger, a somber, talented young child- graduated at the age of ten, chuunin at eleven, jounin at sixteen, and now, it seemed, ANBU.

"Rookie, reporting for duty, sir." There was quiet assurance in the tenor voice. "I believe that the memo arrived around two hours ago."

"It did." Kakashi said in his usual bored tone. "I hope," he said, a bit nastily, "that you aren't expecting any special treatment because you are the Hokage's son?"

The boy paused for a moment or two. Kakashi realized that he was waiting to see if Kakashi would continue. "No, sir."

"Good." Kakashi said crisply. "Red Owl!" he called out, raising his voice to call the short woman who was stacking the paperwork, on the other side of the room. "Spar with the newbie. Assess. I'll be watching."

"Yessir. Come, noob." she said, imperiously.

Nami- the rookie, that was, nodded and followed Red Owl out of the door. Kakashi watched them go, frozen, hands in his pockets. The rest of his posture was perfectly at ease, slouching slightly. After a few minutes, he stood up, and jerked off his porcelain mask, and rolled down the cloth one beneath. He gasped for air, harsh, jerky noises rasping from his throat.

His rare loss of control was momentary. After a few seconds, his dry sobs calmed into rough pants, and then, he forced himself to breath regularly. In, out, in, out...

He clenched his jaw and checked his face for tears. He found none- one could say that Hatake Kakashi had forgotten how to cry. He put both masks back on, stumbled to the window, and leapt out of the window with much less grace than one would expect of the shinobi. His landing was rough, but when he started to walk towards the training grounds that he knew that Red Owl and- the rookie were at, his unsteady pace sped up to his normal stalk.

* * *

They were just beginning their spar when Kakashi arrived. Their movements were slow- that is, a chuunin could see them if he concentrated. Kakashi watched the newbie. The angle he attacked from. The way his weapons moved. If he favored any side...

It was all fairly predictable. But Kakashi knew that it wasn't all. If it had been, he would not have been sent to Squad 15.

Suddenly, Red Owl blurred in midair and appeared straight behind the boy, hurling a kunai at his unprotected back in a lightning-quick movement.

The boy jerked, floundered, and became a shower of pebbles and dust. Red Owl didn't hesitate, but leapt straight up, just in time to escape the grasping hands that punched through the dirt right beneath her feet. Red Owl spun as she reached the highest point of her jump, and sent a cloud of billowing flame at the ground.

There was a terrible sound of scorching wood and a terrible, keening scream. Kakashi held himself still. This wasn't over. It couldn't be.

Red Owl knew it too. She blurred into two, and Red Owl and the kage bunshin kicked towards each other. Their sandals met cleanly, making a soft squeak of impact before the Red Owl was hurled into another direction and the bunshin dissipated into smoke- the smoke was pierced cleanly through by a spike of stone that rose like bamboo, one out of five. Red Owl narrowly avoided the nearest one.

She landed on the ground, hands first. Chakra softened the impact. Kakashi watched her somersault into safety as the spikes crumbled into smaller fragments of rock and hurled themselves at where she had just been. Boulders smashed down onto the grass.

Kakashi furrowed his brow under his mask. An earth specialist? He watched a figure rise up from the earth and walk towards Red Owl, his stride even and assured.  
Suddenly, he stopped, and leapt back, kunai shoot out from his sleeves as he did so. They sailed high and fast and hit a tree somewhere to the right of Red Owl, inches apart. He stopped to deflect something invisible out of the air with his wrists, his movements noticeably faster than before. Kakashi presumed he had some kind of protective metal under his sleeves.

Red Owl appeared from a bush, from his right. The rookie didn't appear to notice, as he fought with an invisible opponent, attacks growing erratic and panicked. Red Owl walked towards him, drawing a kunai...

Suddenly, the boy stopped. Just stopped. Red Owl kept on walking, seeming not to notice this irregularity. Kakashi watched, almost impressed- the genjutsu was good. Not specialist level, of course, but good enough. Better than Red Owl- but Red Owl, while having a healthy respect for genjutsu and what it could do, was not much good at it. It wasn't too unusual, the rookie beating Red Owl in this particular aspect of the shinobi arts...

Red Owl pointed her kunai at the space that the boy had just occupied, and said in a flat, sharp voice- "Give it up. It's over."

The rookie dispelled his genjutsu. "Yes." he said pointing a kunai at the back of her head, in the exact same pose.

Red Owl swept her foot back, her motions a blur. It was her top speed- Kakashi raised an eyebrow. It made contact with his stomach.

The kage bunshin disappeared with a small popping sound.

"I haven't shown you my ninjutsu yet." the rookie said, reprovingly, as he stepped forward from where he'd been hiding, a nearby tree. Kakashi hadn't noticed him- but then again, he had been focused on the fight...

Another stepped out from another tree, just as Red Owl's arm blurred, a soft whistling sound pierced the sudden silence, and a senbon needle punched straight through the first one's forehead.

They were all bunshin. Kakashi counted six of them as they stepped out from their various hiding places, looking subdued and polite.

"I will demonstrate." the second one announced. Red Owl watched him warily as he went through seals...

He blew out a concentrated stream of fire. Red Owl stepped neatly out of the way, and watched the flame arc towards the opposite kage bunshin, who met it with a large globe of water. It all evaporated just as the fire ran out.

"Not half bad." Red Owl said critically. "But you'll have to do better than-"

She dodged out the way. Two large boulders smashed together, meeting at the place she had been.

Kakashi kept track. Fire, water, earth. Granted, the fire had been a bit unsteady- Kakashi assumed that it wasn't his natural element. He had seemed very good with earth, and if he'd gotten the water globule from the dew... nicely done. Earth and water, perhaps, being bi-elemental wasn't rare, although it was unusual-

The same kage bunshin who had summoned water send out a spray of water at Red Owl. The droplets rapidly formed a sort of bridge between the bunshin and Red Owl.  
"Too predictable." Red Owl said, sounding almost derisive. "You're going to send electricity thro- argh!"

Kakashi saw the second-to-last kage bunshin explode into smoke as Red Owl bit off her scream and punched it hard in the face. It had gotten her in the leg.

She turned, limping. She jumped out of the way of the last attack, but one scything, giant wind shuriken caught her in the same leg that had received the lightning attack.  
Kakashi nearly winced at that. The wind shuriken changed course a bit in midair and struck a tree, tearing off most of its leaves. Green dust rained onto the ground, and a normal steel shuriken clanged down the branches and thudded onto the ground on the other side.

Red Owl rolled on the ground, her torn ANBU robes flapping behind her as she tumbled down the sloping grass.

The rookie watched her dispassionately. And fell, very slowly, down.

He didn't seem to be panicked. "How long?" he asked, as the wounded figure of Red Owl became part of the land.

"Since you announced your ninjutsu." A voice over him said. Red Owl pursed her lips as she dispelled her henge. One of the dark gray pebbles that had clattered away from the remains of her earth bunshin. "Your concentration was scattered."

The boy was silent for a few seconds, his eyes glazed. He nodded. "Ah. I see. You used the body flicker technique... well, that was fast."

His breaths whistled in his throat. He closed his eyes.

Kakashi stepped forward. "What poison did you use?" he asked in a flat voice.

"It's just a tranquilizer." Red Owl said, stepping closer to the boy to examine him. "He's probably out like a-"

The boy's foot shot up, and caught Red Owl in the stomach. She twisted and bent to lessen the impact, but an earth bunshin clattered to life from behind her and dealt her a sharp blow to the back of her head. She crumpled, onto the rookie's prone form.

He sighed from beneath the unconscious woman. The bunshin gently pulled her off and put her down.

"I didn't mean to win." the rookie murmured, getting up. "I thought she was a bunshin. Really."

He looked at Kakashi. Kakashi stared at Red Owl.

"Impressive. You're... how old?" As if he didn't know.

"Almost seventeen, sir."

He would be. Kakashi nodded, absently. "Well done. Welcome to Squad 15. Your status is probational for two months, then we'll decide whether to keep you or let you go."

"Yes, sir."

"Your file, please."

The rookie walked over Kakashi, making to pull something out of his worn chuunin vest. Half a second after he came into range. Kakashi's fist shot forward. The rookie parried with the flat side of the kunai he'd just plucked out of his vest. His other hand pulled out a yellowy file. It was a bit thick and old-looking.

"Good reflexes." Kakashi commented, taking the file.

"Thank you, sir."

"Tell me, who was your genin instructor?"

"I was the odd one out, sir. I was privately trained by my father's jounin-sensei."

That would be Jiraiya, then.

"Do you have a summoning contract?"

"Toads, sir. It's all in my file."

"It would be." Kakashi said. "Dismissed. Report back tomorrow, nine am sharp."

"Yessir." The boy saluted, and dissipated into smoke.

Kakashi stared at the place he'd been, trying to recall... it was either when he'd parried his blow or when he'd knocked out Red Owl.

He was fast.

* * *

Kakashi spent four hours that night reading Namikaze Naruto's file.

He had enrolled rather late. Most started when they were eight and graduated at twelve. Like most clan children, Naruto had started shinobi training earlier than normal.

After several attempts on his life from foreign assassins as an infant, he had started learning chakra theory, taijutsu and apparently sealing basics from four and had started learning chakra techniques when he was nine. (Kakashi read the specifics, growing almost impressed as he did.)

Kakashi was one of the four living people in the world who knew enough to guess as to why he'd starting learning ninjutsu so late. The other two were the Sandaime Hokage, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Namikaze Naruto himself. The demon Kyuubi had been sealed into his teacher's son when he was born. It made sense that it would still be making trouble for everyone.

He took to it like fish to water. He'd attended the Academy for eight months, passed all the tests will flying colors and graduated with near-full marks. Apparently he'd been unable to perform the standard bunshin. After graduating, he had completed the minimum amount of D-rank missions needed to take the chuunin exam in two weeks, and had disappeared off to train with his jounin-sensei.

He returned in a year just in time for the chuunin exams, and to summarize, kicked ass.

There was a memo from Jiraiya at this point.

'I put him through the grinder while we wandered through Fire Country. Much of it was concentrated on developing his wind affinity and developing his shaky chakra control.

He'll never have excellent chakra control, but he won't need it with his chakra reserves. They're (crossed out by a different colored pen) massive. He learned Rasengan, mastered it in two months. Told him not to use it, though.

Also signed toad contract, but did little practice with summoning. In special circumstances, he can summon Gamabunta. Doesn't use it much.

Tried to improve his genjutsu but gave it up. He's hopeless. He has the imagination for realistic genjutsu but not the control for it. I plan to hand him over to some other unlucky fool to help him with it.

Also has learned his mother's clan taijutsu style and a few water jutsu in his spare time. Isn't good at water jutsu but likes the element itself. Practices a lot. Seems determined to master it.'

Kakashi read it twice. Rasengan in two months? Impressive. It was... astounding, in fact. The boy had been... what? Almost eleven at that point. Good God.

He read about the Chuunin exams, which had been held in Grass Country. He skimmed everything until he got to the unchanging exam, the tournament. He had come out second. Not too shabby.

After that... Kakashi raised an eyebrow. In a span of three and half years from his promotion to chuunin and promotion to special jounin, his record was 24 D-rank missions, 92 C-rank, 73 B-rank, 17 A-rank and 5 S-rank. All except one of the S-rank missions had been with Jiraiya, and the last one was with... classified.

SS-rank, apparently.

Kakashi sat on haunches, peering intently at the file. Curious... This was just three months ago. The boy had gone for three weeks. The mission itself... was wiping out an organization... of missing nin... but that was all. No names. No numbers.

And, apparently straight after he'd come back, he'd been promoted to jounin. Private exam. Proctored by the Hokage, overseen by his sensei.

There were a few more scribbled notes from Jiraiya. 'Improved genjutsu... brief education in medical skills, little talent... added wind element to Rasengan...'  
Kakashi looked at the ceiling. At the clock. And went to get a cup of coffee.

When he came back, the sentence was still there. No elaboration. Kakashi decided to ask Jiraiya about it the next day. (And maybe get an autograph on Icha Icha volume IX.)  
He was nearly at the end of the file. The next to last page was a brief summary of his current skills.

Ninjutsu... natural element, wind. Mastered earth and water. Adequate and fire and lightning. Arsenal: See next page.

Kakashi took a look at it. The page was filled, with little space at the edges, with tiny print. Kakashi changed his posture to take a closer look. Jutsu of all elements. Oddly, wind didn't take the majority. Earth and water did. Quite a few of them were one-hit, unsubtle assassination techniques.

Kakashi flipped back, and read about his genjutsu. Nothing extraordinary. Good at breaking them. Decent at casting them. His imperfect control was countered by his exceptional memory for imagery. Not bad, then.

Taijutsu... three styles completely mastered. His mother's traditional clan style- 'Swirl'. Which he'd apparently added a whole new dimension to, with Kage Bunshin. A heavy, strength-oriented style, which seemed to be a variation on the Akimichi one. A bit incongruous, Kakashi thought, thinking of the boy's slight, slender build. Something like... ah, yes, the last one fit well. It was a flexible, speed-oriented one. 'Zanzou'.  
And a few miscellaneous taijutsu tricks. A tacked-on memo from Jiraiya said that the boy knew, in theory, how to open the first two Celestial Gates.

Medical skills, sub-par. Sealing... Kakashi scanned the next two paragraphs. Well, well. The boy's knowledge seemed to be focused on the sealing of demons, but his basic knowledge extended to most areas of sealing, and he was quite good with C-space sealing. (Weapons in scrolls and so forth.)

Prefered weapons of choice; wakizashi, nunchaku, naginata.(1) Close-range fighter, then.

Kakashi finished his cup of coffee and tiredly turned his eyes to the last sentence. Swallowed quickly, and started coughing very hard.

S-rank shinobi?

(1) Wakizashi: medium-length sword. Nunchaku: Two sticks attached by a short chain. Naginata: blade attached to pole.

* * *


	2. Chapter II

* * *

The Human Blade

AN: Gimme some time to do the third chapter, because it's the one in which I shall reveal what sort of strange and angst-inducing disorders that Kakashi will have that will conveniently end him up bunking with Naruto. Muahaha. And I need to do research for that, unless one of my readers is a psychology major and can send me a long, detailed PM about mental diseases that can segue into things that Jiraiya would like to write.

But, I might add, there's not going to be explicit sex scenes in this story. In case you were hoping.

Excuse the typos.

Chapter II

* * *

_A shadow slid out of the bushes. Four figures stood still in the middle of the clearing, moonlight casting harsh shadows on their faces. _

_The first one had unruly orange hair that was prominent even in the mostly black-and-white colors of the time of faint light and shadows. He had a slightly restless tilt to his mouth and his stance spoke tension. However, he didn't move, staring with almost glazed eyes at the figure that straightened from the foliage._

_The second was a boy with pale blue hair that the moonlight turned iridescent. His eyes darted at every movement, his hand kept twitching towards the handle of the sword that was strapped to his back- a steel monster, wrapped in loose cloth- here and there the metal showed through, and did not glint._

_The third was a girl with black hair, with a grim set to her face. She was closer to the fourth figure than all the others, breaking the perfect symmetry their formation would have otherwise had. _

_The last was a dark-haired man, the tallest of them all, wearing white judogi, navy blue pants, a swath of lighter blue cloth around his waist, tied there by a violet rope belt. The moonlight rendered them white, black, grayish, dark grayish- he seemed, at first glance, to be a figure bleached of all color, except for the spinning red wheel in his eyes- the Sharingan, his bloodright, his greatest weapon and pride- his identity._

_"You claim that you are an Uchiha. Prove it." he said, as the fifth person walked out slowly from the edge of the clearing. He was wearing a mask and torn black robes- Uchiha Sasuke looked down disdainfully at the bent figure, wondering, wondering..._

_The man raised his face. The moonlight shone directly into the single eyehole of his queer mask, revealing a hypnotizing scarlet pattern, blazing with its own fire on a backdrop of darkness- three hollow red circles, trailing lazily around the black hole, round and round, their tails connecting. Uchiha Sasuke's full Sharingan stirred to life, and the two stared at each other, the latter's frame slowly tensing, and then relaxing again._

_"You are..." he started._

_"The only person who can offer you the power you need." the man answered._

* * *

Namikaze Naruto idly swirled the contents of his bowl with his chopsticks. Besides him, his white-haired sensei scribbled on a spread napkin with a ballpoint pen, his cooling ramen forgotten. There was a wide grin on his face and a blush across his nose. Naruto rolled his eyes and contemplated his food.

There had been a time when he had been crazy about ramen. He still liked it a lot, but not with the fanaticism that would have had him swallowing every last noodle until someone had to roll him home. Perhaps it had been a mistake to come here- now he found he was in the mood for seafood, instead.

His still-blank mask hung on his belt, a light but still unfamiliar weight. He had countered it with two more kunai on the opposite pouch, but it still weighed on him. He remembered the sharp, appraising way Red Owl had eyed him with before taking a basic taijutsu stance. The unreadable glint in the eyes of the man who Naruto was almost sure was his squad captain. His taichou. Naruto tried the word in his head.

He hadn't missed the fact that the extra shadows inside the man's left eyehole had been cloth. Naruto had done extremely quick research for one-eyed active ninja in Konoha. The search came up with three who were audacious enough to continue active duty with the handicap, but none of them fit the description of the ANBU he had seen.

Naruto lifted his bowl and sipped the broth. It was warm and salty. And unexpected smile tilted the corners of his mouth- maybe not seafood, then. Ramen still tasted good.

"Jiraiya." Naruto said, after scanning his fellow customers and trying to imbue murderous tendencies to them in his mind. "Do you know of anyone in this village who might go around with their left eye covered?" There was little chance he might know, though, Jiraiya had spent most of the recent years traveling outside Konoha.

"Masa-kun has an eye patch." Jiraiya said, with his eyes fixed on his third napkin. "On his left eye. Raku-chan discovered that it hid an odd-eye behind it, right after she took off his- eeowowouch-"

With a stony expression, Naruto let go of his sensei's wrist. There were two crescent-shaped parks on the flesh. Naruto kept the nails of his thumb and forefinger carefully groomed for his purpose.

"Don't _do_ that, brat!" Jiraiya tried to swat him with his napkin. "It's not my fault you're not- normal!"

Naruto waited for elaboration.

"A hot-blooded male, I mean." Jiraiya grumbled. "A normal teenager would have bought all of my books already. It's a tragedy that a student of mine would be totally asexual."

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway." Jiraiya said quickly, lowering his voice. "Left eye, eh? Sounds like Hatake Kakashi, if I'm not much mistaken. Masa-kun is actually based on him, except that he gets more action- all right, all right. Hatake Kakashi, he was your father's student when he was chuunin."

"I've never heard of him."

Jiraiya shrugged one shoulder. "After your father died... he sort of threw himself into shinobi duties. Everyone thought he was going to get himself killed in one of his missions on purpose or something, but he didn't, I guess. I don't know what happened to him recently, although we met a couple of times- he's a pretty big fan of my books-"

Naruto groaned. "Damn!"

"What?" Jiraiya protested. "That just means he's _normal_!"

"Only a depraved..." Naruto drew his breath to rant, but stopped. Jiraiya heard this all the time, it wouldn't make a difference. "He's part of my squad. I think he's the captain."

Jiraiya stared at him. Naruto stared back, until he realized Jiraiya wasn't being disbelieving. "Are you sure?"

"Uh... yeah. I mean, of course we don't _know_ if he's Hatake Kakashi-"

"What color hair did he have?" Jiraiya demanded.

Naruto thought back. "He couldn't be Hatake Kakashi." Naruto said, doing some quick math in his head. Nearly seventeen years ago... situation bad with Iwa, so people being promoted faster... chuunin... talented, by the sounds of it, so... "Because Hatake can't be older than... um, thirty five, I think, and the man had gray hair-"

Jiraiya sprang out of his seat. "I'm going to see the Hokage!" he said, and started to sprint towards the Hokage tower, a trail of dust following him.

Naruto sighed and finished his ramen before slowly standing up, paying for the food (and cursing when he realized Jiraiya had left him with the bill for five bowls of ramen) and setting off to go to the Namikaze home.

* * *

Naruto disliked messing up his father's study. It was pretty cluttered, but in a neat way, scrolls haphazardly stacked on the sides of the desk, battered manuscripts preserved in the cupboards, files in his desk. Of course he had probably worked in the Hokage's office the most, but he had brought home a fair bit of work from time to time.

There were a pile of pictures in the fifth drawer of his desk. When Naruto had been younger, he had liked to lock himself into the study, and without disturbing anything else, shuffling through the pictures for a glimpse of his parents. He used to spend hours there, tucking his knees under his thighs and handling the photographs like they were made of glass, poring over the features of his parents...

Blonde hair. A strong jaw. Sharply defined cheekbones. Spiky hair, longer at the sides. A battered hitai-ate, proudly displayed on his forehead, a white cloak casually draped over his shoulders, red flames depicted at the bottom, licking upwards. An enthusiastic grin... Naruto stopped mid-shuffle, staring at one of his favorite pictures. He blinked for a few seconds, and then flipped it to the back.

The next one was a close-up of his mother, smiling brilliantly at him, hands curving around a rounded belly. A pin clipped back her fire-red hair, which cascaded down below her hips. Her expression was radiant, glowing with life and health and happiness. The first time he had seen it, it had struck him dumb.

Naruto blinked again, and turned that to the back, too.

Finally, he found what he was looking for. The third stack, which he had, as a child, not been very interested in (because many of them didn't have his parents in it, and the ones that did included other people and were taken from a relatively long distance, so to include them all) had a picture of his father standing behind three children.

It was slightly fuzzy. In the middle was a boy with goggles, his hair and jawline marking him instantly as an Uchiha. The mystery was that he was smiling. To the left was a girl with short brown hair, and to the right... a vaguely sullen-looking boy with pale gray hair and a mask that covered his entire face except for his eyes.

Naruto knew him. He was in a lot of photos with his father. He shuffled the photographs rapidly. He found several more with the boy in it. None of them featured him with his mask off, something that vaguely annoyed him. Five of them portrayed him with his hitai-ate tilted, covering his left eye. Naruto presumed an eye transplant, since he hadn't been in the list of one-eyed ninja. He wondered why he felt a need to cover it.

The oldest-looking picture of him was an official identification photo that people had to take every two years. Even this one has his mask on. And his hitai-ate tilted. So not vanity, then?...

Naruto put the pictures back into the drawer, in a thoughtful mood. He thought he had known everything about his father, he'd rarely thought about the possibility that his father might have had students. He'd assumed he hadn't, they'd never stepped forth to meet him.

He wondered why Jiraiya had never mentioned them. Or why Hatake Kakashi had never been introduced to him.

He could search his father's documents for information, but it would be easier to wait for Jiraiya at his apartment and then squeeze him. Standing up carefully, he scanned the room, made sure everything was in order, and stepped out, locking the door as he did so.

On his way out, he gave the desiccated garden a quick spray of water, and scaled the walls out. The gate was tangled with ivy, he felt inclined to keep it that way.

As he sped across the rooftops (which was illegal- too many overreager genin who tried it on cheap tiles ended up crashing through the roofs), he fingered his blank porcelain ANBU mask and felt something weighty settle in his heart.

A guardian of Konoha... a village he had lost illusions about three months ago.

Naruto must have taken longer in that study than he had thought, because when he came back to his apartment, Jiraiya was already waiting with a cooling cup of tea and a pensive look on is face. "Hey, brat." he greeted when the door opened. Naruto walked in. A kunai caught him in the head- the kage bunshin dissipated.

"Good." Jiraiya said approvingly. Naruto walked in. Three senbon nailed him in the gut- it turned out to be a kage bunshin, too. The real Naruto was already sitting opposite the Sannin, sipping his tea.

"Nice speed."

"Thank you. I've been working on it."

There was silence. Naruto waited for the moment. Jiraiya avoided Naruto's gaze and stared at his own amber-tinted tea. "To hell with it. What do you want to ask?"

"Hatake Kakashi." Naruto said instantly. "His eye. It's a transplant, right? And his teammate was an Uchiha, it was probably his, because he's dead-"

Jiraiya held up a hand, forestalling all theories. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, where did you get all these crazy ideas?"

"He covered his eye." Naruto said. "And didn't show it even in his id photos. I didn't see him with his teammate in any of the pictures after he started hiding it, even though I saw him with the girl. The boy was an Uchiha. His jaw resembled... um, you know. His."

"Good guess." Jiraiya said, after a pause. "You're right." He refilled his cup. Steam swirled up. "But it's not my story to tell. Don't ask about it."

"But you can tell me about his shinobi skills."

"Yes." But Jiraiya didn't speak, choosing instead to sip his tea for another long minute. "Have you ever heard of the Copycat Ninja?"

"No."

"Haven't read the Bingo Book?"

"Only my entry."

Jiraiya snorted. "And you call _me_ an egotist. Kakashi used his implanted Sharingan to copy a fuckload of techniques. Over a thousand, I hear, although I don't know if that's true or not. Anyway, I lost touch with him after he was sixteen or so, when he got promoted to ANBU captain. Now I hear..." Jiraiya paused. "Well. Shinobi aren't the most stable of people, as you know..."

"He's... gone crazy?" Naruto said cautiously.

"Not quite. Not quite." Jiraiya murmured. "He's just a bit unstable. Sensei thinks that putting his old teacher's son on his squad will help matters. I don't see how." Jiraiya drained his second cup. "The way I see it, it'll only serve to break his heart. Don't take your mask off in front of him, Naruto. That's my advice."

Naruto's longtime sensei and friend looked... old... as he shoved in the chair again and headed towards the guest bedroom. "Good night."

* * *

Naruto went to see the Sandaime Hokage the next day. Naruto was always welcome in the Hokage's office, especially when Naruto did the man's paperwork for him. The unimportant bits, that was, like the Academy's supply of kunai and medical bills of the Konoha hospital. Naruto knew that the Hokage was planning to announce him his successor, although Naruto felt rather unsure about that.

"How much did Jiraiya tell you last night?" The Sandaime asked, all reluctance to talk to Naruto disappearing at the sight of the paper bag he set down on top of his paperwork, with sandwiches and coffee in it.

Naruto thought back. "My dad's student, and where his Sharingan came from, but I guessed that bit for myself."

"Clever of you." His surrogate grandfather sighed. "Too clever by half, I always said, even when you were a small child."

Naruto said nothing. Someone else might have thought that he was trying to distract the blond- Naruto knew better. If the Hokage wanted to do so, he would have used better tactics to turn the conversation to something else, or instead neatly avoid what he didn't want to tell him while speaking- like a dry boulder in the middle of a river.

"Why do you think I put you on Squad 15?"

"The stabilization of Hatake Kakashi?" But, Naruto couldn't help but think that was a bit too obvious... the Hokage rarely did anything without an ulterior motive hidden in a secondary goal within the obvious reason.

"I have found, Naruto, that there is rarely any use in hiding things from you. Yes, part of the reason is Kakashi-kun. Another one is that you are the perfect missing piece for Squad 15, whose members are dangerously efficient, but need a... stabilizing piece, you might say- they clash at times."

"Ah." Naruto thought for a while. "But I don't know anything about the other members. Shouldn't I be prepared? In case I say or do something that'll just make the situation worse."

"A very transparent attempt to get information from me." the Hokage said, smiling. "Yes. I have already gotten their files copied for you." He rummaged about in his desk, sandwiches (temporarily) forgotten. He came up with five files. "Certain parts censored, of course, things that you have no business knowing."

"Of course. Thank you." Naruto took the files with both hands, and took out a medium-sized scroll from his chuunin vest. He held it open by pinning the unrolled edge onto his lap with an elbow.

Ink seals were scrawled on the rough parchment. He placed the files carefully on a rectangle of little symbols slightly larger than the files themself, licked his thumb, and smeared the saliva in between two symmetrical characters in the middle of a side. The files vanished, leaving four splashes of ink in the middle of the rectangle.

The Hokage watched. "Very innovative use of C-space." he said, smiling slightly. "I see you made some improvements since last time."

"Yes, sir." Naruto said. "But only a little, I've been working towards improving my genjutsu lately."

"Ah, yes. I can see why. I imagine that you were inspired by... your partner in your latest S-class mission." the Hokage said.

Naruto's face went rigid. The Sandaime's face went bland in response, and they stared at each other.

"We've been through this." he said.

"Yessir. Unfortunately, I'm too young to have thrown away my youthful idealism, sir." Naruto said.

"Have you been talking to Gai?" the Sandaime asked suspiciously.

"Whenever I can't avoid it."

The Sandaime laughed, trying to fill the sudden hollow of silence in the room. It died away rather quickly.

Naruto mechanically chewed his sandwiches. The Sandaime's eyes hardened- the atmosphere seemed to consolidate.

"Namikaze." he said in a stony voice. "Things had to be done. As the future Hokage, you should know this. You cannot afford to keep that attitude! Ninja are machines. Humans are not perfect. There are times when people have to be put down."

"Put down." Naruto repeated listlessly. "Yes."

He dusted his hands on the wrapping paper. The cafe name was printed in pale ink on the smooth white surface, repeating until infinity beyond the edge. Naruto imagined, briefly, the letters stretching into oblivion. Nothing but the words. They turned into names...

"What was done was barbarous." the Sandaime's voice was bland. "I admit it. But it needed doing."

Even the children... except one. And look at what had happened. Uchiha Sasuke, now a S-rank nukenin. Kill on sight. God...

His voice was almost inaudible. "I understand, sir. I know why it was necessary. But I don't like it."

The Sandaime waved a hand. "That's not a bad thing, child. It shows that you are human. But when you ascend to the position I hold now, never hesitate when doing something that needs doing. Never let your personal feelings... or pity... to affect your decisions. You know this."

"I know, sir."

There was silence, but of the more relaxed sort.

Naruto coughed, almost embarrassed to ask. It was like inquiring after a mad relative, a subject you skip over or cover lightly. "About Hatake Kakashi..."

"That's in your mission file." At Naruto's look, the Sandaime elaborated. "I want you to treat this whole experience as a mission. Do your duty, of course, that's your primary goal in the ANBU corps. But I want you to give much attention to stabilizing the team, as well."

Naruto jerked his head in understanding.

There was a knock. "Come in." the Sandaime said quickly- Naruto turned his head to see a chuunin sidle in. "Hi, Raidou." he said, smiling.

The shinobi grinned at him. "Yo. Are you doing the paperwork today, by any chance? Because all of this is from the Academy."

Naruto couldn't help but gawp at the massive pile that Raidou was holding. The bottom of the stack started from groin level and the top file Raidou was pinning with his chin. "No thanks." At the Sandaime's glare, he added hurriedly, "I have an appointment with my squad right now."

"Shall I check?" the Hokage said poisonously.

"No need!" Naruto leapt out of his chair. Paperwork was like homework from his brief Academy days, only worse. "Hope you enjoyed the breakfast, Hokage-sama!"

He sprinted towards the window, and vaulted off from the windowsill, just in time to avoid several shuriken and kunai that were hurled towards him.

Paperwork, after all...

* * *

Naruto really didn't know many people in Konoha, when it came down to that. He'd lived a sheltered life until nine, playing by himself or studying. At the Academy he'd found a group of idiots, except for a few kids he actually liked. After he graduated, he performed the required amount of D-rank missions to pass the chuunin exams in the space of a few weeks, and had left for a training trip with Jiraiya.

He'd gotten to know some random people in Fire Country... He had a chance to meet with (i.e. fight) some local yakuza, because Jiraiya said he needed the practice... he'd taken the chuunin exams as soon as he came back, and had spent his time in Konoha up until now in quiet isolation, doing usually solo missions, sometimes with people who were usually too awed to be in the presence of the Yondaime's son to be of any real help in duties.

But really, the number of friends near his age he could count on one hand. His father's old genin teammate's nephew, Neji, was one of them.

Today was a Friday, which meant that he would be in training grounds 11, where Naruto often met him to spar. But Hatake Kakashi had said to come at nine- depending on how long he was kept (And Naruto thought that it would be long...) he might or might not be able to meet him.

He created a Kage Bunshin to deliver the message, while he himself leisurely strolled towards the ANBU headquarters, checking his watch and finding that he had enough time.

Just before stepping through the gates, he created three more Kage Bunshin. Two of them paired up and sped towards the side of the building that had office 15's window on it.

The last one strolled up the stairs, the real Naruto following behind. He could hear voices inside- Hatake Kakashi's bored drawl, a hard female voice he didn't recognize, and his own calm tenor. There was a thud, and the familiar sound of dissipating Kage Bunshin.

There was a sound of sandals hitting window ledge, which Naruto heard through a haze of unfamiliar memories. (Running through wet grass, scaling the wall, climbing through the window, apologizing, talking, a woman with a pattern on her mask that looked like the hood of a cobra, kunai, plunging through skin into nothing-)

Muffled voices, again. Naruto wished that he'd read the files on the ANBU members before he'd come, he'd just have to be careful with every one of them.

"You can come in now." The second Kage Bunshin was killed.

The last one opened the door and stepped through, taking a second more than necessary- Naruto sidled through the door, muffling his chakra signature and putting up a genjutsu that disguised him as part of the wall.

His last clone put up a sheepish hand. "Ano," he started, and jerked his torso to the right. A kunai thudded into the wooden door behind him.

"I'm getting annoyed with all your clones, rookie." the woman growled, her serpentine mask grinning. "Show yourself."

"I'm the real one, I swear." the clone said, sounding tired.

The woman's eyes narrowed, and she made a movement under her cloak. Hatake Kakashi put up a warning hand. "Cobra."

Cobra. A hot-tempered woman if he'd ever seen one, indeed...

"Do you think I'm stupid?" she snarled. "I can see right through that flimsy genjutsu you have up. It's annoying me."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. She could be bluffing, he thought, but put it down anyway.

The clone regretfully took out a kunai and performed a bastardized seppuku.

So... dramatic. Did he have to...

He didn't missed the momentary rigidity to Hatake's frame, even as he dismissed the genjutsu.

"How did you notice?" he said in a neutral voice- one he had carefully practiced over the years. (Not too emotionless- neither hostile or friendly, just very very polite... give the impression that you're a nice, friendly, normal boy who has just met a stranger and wants to get along with him...)

There was a low sound from under the mask. "None of your business."

Unfriendly, was she?

But how did she see through that genjutsu? Naruto was sure that he had muffled his chakra signature perfectly...

_'Hyuuga'_, a voice whispered in his head. It was an almost-instinct that he had, one that rarely led him astray. Naruto didn't like listening to it.

Hatake Kakashi cleared his throat. "I'd introduce you to the rest of the team, but Leopard, the vice captain, is out on a solo mission and Beagle is in the hospital. I might as well introduce you to Cobra- you met Red Owl yesterday. I am the squad captain, Wolf."

"I see, sir." Naruto said. "Has my codename been designated yet?"

The answer was bland. "Fox."

How... ironic. Naruto felt strangely disappointed. He could see the logic behind the name, he had many traits that could be compared to that of a fox- (agility, innovative, cunning...) but he couldn't help but wonder- who was it that?-...

"So..." Naruto said, a bit uncomfortable. "Am I doing anything today?"

"We've got an A-rank mission next week, when Beagle is released." Wolf said. "Today, I'll be testing you personally. Come along, the same place from yesterday."

There was a swirl of leaves and a thin plume of smoke where he'd been. Naruto stared at the spot, and then glanced at Cobra (With a small effort of will, Naruto's pupils dilated, and he realized, through watering eyes, that through the eyeholes of Cobra's mask he could indeed see the pale lavender sheen of the dormant Byakugan. With another small effort of will, his irises dilated, and he could see normally again.)

"What are you looking at?" Cobra snarled. Her voice conveyed uncertainty. Naruto wiped his streaming eyes. He hated doing that in daytime. Although it was fantastic for looking into the shadows, the drawback was the intense pain from too much light. Overriding the brain's signals to his eyes with chakra... by no means a safe, or healthy technique, but his unique... condition allowed him to play tricks like these with his senses without any permanent drawbacks.

"Nothing, Cobra-san." Naruto said. "Are you coming?"

"Of course I am." she said, uncrossing her arms and walking towards the window. "You're going to get your ass kicked, rookie. I'll enjoy watching that."

"Yes, ma'am." Naruto said, rolling his eyes under his mask. No wonder this squad had problems- with this girl on the team, things were bound to get strained.

He teleported to the training grounds from yesterday. Although it even wasn't noon yet, the sun blazed bright and hot and the whole towns sweltered. Naruto didn't mind too much, but he saw people growing annoyed from the oppressive heat. Perhaps Cobra's bad temper...

Best not to hope, though.

He sent a bunshin forward to meet his captain, rather feeling that reading the files first would have been a great help.

* * *

AN: By the way, I absolutely hate the Fox mask cliche. But I think I can forgive myself for doing it because, 1- truthfully, a fox does represent (my) Naruto the best, 2- since no one knows Naruto is the jinchuuriki of Kyuubi, no one's going to think much of it.

And, much appreciation would go to anyone who can give me advice on what to do with Kakashi's brain. If there isn't, I'll just have to do with Wiki and the various neurology and psychology books littered around the house... which I would not like reading just to write one fanfic.


	3. Squad 15, the History

I'd like to apologize in advance for the general suckiness of this chapter. But I really wanted to get the file-reading part over with- it's pretty rushed.

Chapter III

* * *

The man was good. Cracked he might have been, but he was good.

He pressed ruthlessly forward, giving Naruto no space to perform, or switch with, a bunshin secretly. Naruto was hard pressed just in keeping up with the overwhelming power of the gray-haired man in front of him- hands jabbed, faster than a normal eye could see, body whirled and twisted in an elaborate dance of death. Steel whistled- Naruto had already received a nick to his cheek, which had already started to heal. Naruto parried with kunai with his own, gradually speeding up as well.

Hatake Kakashi landed a kick onto Naruto's stomach- Naruto bent to lessen the damage, twisted in midair, flailed a bit, and blocked another thrust with his sandal. He kicked off from there, spun, and opened a scroll- kunai and smoke bombs rained down, most crumbling as they hit the ground. Naruto heard clangs from below him as he formed a bunshin as he plunged downwards again. Managing to gain a bit of momentum with his clone before he fell, his trajectory changing just enough to avoid the next attack, five spinning streams of water, followed by crackling lightning. It missed by an inch.

He rolled on the ground, hands forming a discreet seal as he flopped down onto the grass, his cheek burnt badly, the wound extending down to his chest, where his chuunin vest was ripped, revealing more blackened flesh.

A tall figure emerged from the smoke. A bit ragged looking but looking nonchalant, the man even managed to slouch a bit as he walked out of the destruction without a scratch. He stopped when he saw Naruto's body, and the real one, sneaking up to him from behind, saw his the fingers of his right hand convulse. A low growl emerged from his throat.

The man whirled around and struck him in the face, hard. The metal plates on his gloves cracked Naruto's yet unmarked mask, cleaving it cleanly into two. The bifurcated porcelain clattered down on the ground, and haunted blue eyes stared into Wolf's own mask, lips moving in a soundless plea. Blood trickled down from his forehead where the mask had broken, it soaked into his ghostly blond hair, waving like fronds. The forest behind him had melted into something tar-like and loathsome, his trousers were soaked in it- it was congealing blood...

Hatake Kakashi stood utterly still, watching a face that bore little resemblance to anything human, the eyes wide and inhuman, and the boy stepped closer, long-nailed hands reaching up, taking his chin, mouth opening to reveal horrific ebony teeth-

Genjutsu. Wolf concentrated, and the illusion broke with little resistance. The real Naruto swam into view, right in front of him, shadows obscuring eyes he had no wish to see.

"That was an interesting genjutsu." Wolf said, amiably, his mask smiling down with equal cheerfulness.

"Thank you, sir." Fox answered, and both attacked at the same time.

Cobra watched from the sidelines, her pearl eyes narrowed.

It soon became clear that both Fox and Wolf had been hiding their real abilities- Naruto's speed doubled, and still he did not tire. Hatake Kakashi pulled no punches, either, as they danced around each other, trapping, escaping, attacking, defending, faking, seeking, spinning, dodging. Soon, the ninjutsu they pulled out became lethal- Fox started to use slicing wind attacks that would kill a man if it hit right, and lightning constantly sizzled in the palm of Wolf's hand- not a full Raikiri, but certainly something that could assassinate.

The noise they made was not quiet. Soon, a few people started to arrive- of course, this was practically an ANBU-exclusive training field, but there were plenty of jounin who had the authority. Maito Gai was one of them, and he watched the battle with unusually serious eyes.

"That boy." he commented to Cobra. "The rookie?"

"Hngh." Cobra grunted out. Gai was not afraid of her, as many people were simply for her sheer aggression.

"He's good." There was a glint in Gai's eyes as he watched the battle, the two figures spinning around each other, blows connecting so fast when they met that the impact sounded like birds' wings, weaving genjutsu that was usually almost instantly dispelled from the other side, wind meeting lightning, earth meeting water, fire meeting fire as they interwove chakra techniques into their manifold strategies. "Very fast, too. Almost as good as my student. His movements are... interesting."

Indeed, Naruto was using his mother's clan's traditional taijutsu style. He advanced in curves, shaping an almost-pattern as he did so. It was hard to tell afterimages and his clones apart- the clones, at least two of them, performed similar movement to the real one (Not that one could really tell them apart) and swirled around the lone figure of Wolf, who nonetheless jabbed out, defending and attacking simultaneously without showing signs of exhaustion.

Swirl was a difficult style to master. One had to completely understand the mind of his enemy, and then predict what he would do, and react to it appropriately. Simple enough- but humans were not the easiest to predict, and reaction took time. Naruto had almost figured out his captain's fluid fighting style- although his actions were impossible to pinpoint before he made them, Naruto knew what he _wouldn't_ do, ninety percent of the time. It was the advantage he had- all of him moved forward, his clones dispelled, and through the wash of information and threefold insight into his enemy's thoughts, he struck.

* * *

"Can I get you another drink, sir?" the serving girl simpered. The dark-haired man looked up, brow creasing slightly.

"No."

"Are you sure? We have sake from Lightning Country, or wine-"

"No."

The girl paused, scores of drinks arrayed in her mind. "But-"

"I'll stick to water, thank you." the man said coldly. In the face of such rejection, the girl turned around and walked away, exuding haughtiness. She was attractive, but nothing he intended to pay attention to.

The man focused on the piece of paper he had in his hand. Sipping his water, he stared at it. After a minute, he pulled out a pen and marked down all the squares. He turned over the paper, checked the answers. It took him two seconds. Flipping it over again, he exhaled softly. His fingers glowed for a second- the sudoku puzzle crumbled into ash, which rained down onto the table and his lap. He brushed them off slowly, his mind elsewhere.

Blonde hair caught his attention. He watched the long-haired young woman walk down the stairs, eyes absently staring off into space as she exited the bar. The man watched her through the glass, lazy red spinning behind black lenses as he tracked her path down the market, pale gold drifting behind her. Plenty of men stopped to watch, but Itachi felt only disdain towards her-

Too washed out, he thought. That was not golden hair. That was pale yellow hair.

Closing his eyes, he massaged his temples and stared at his glass of water, feeling drained.

A memory rose, clear as day, forever imprinted in his mind- he'd had his bloodline activated at that time. Lips curled into a smile. Cerulean irises, framed by delicate lashes, brows rising into a quizzical frown. Tanned hands trying to press his hair down, and failing. Peals of laughter, stamping themselves into the echoing vaults of his memory-

Itachi drank his water, and didn't stop. He even crunched the ice cubes in his mouth, and stared at the clock hanging over the beer bottles on the counter. He wasn't waiting for anyone, it was just another day, meaningless without anything to do. Nothing. His work was over. In his twenties, and already the purpose of his life was over. He had done his part for peace- (at least, he hoped so, Gods he hoped so, if he hadn't-) and now he was... useless.

No orders. Itachi felt like a machine that had been told to go on vacation.

("Sempai-") A phantom voice rang out, a bit breathless, tinged with laughter...

There was a word for this. Something he had heard people saying- he'd never used it before, but there was no better time. What was it?- A synonym for excrement, feces, manure, no... Oh yes, 'shit'.

* * *

Wolf beat him. It was to be expected. Naruto arched his back to avoid the blade digging into his back, his wrists aching from the rope that was coiled around them. Senbon prickled into his skin there- if Naruto tried to get out of it, they would dig deep into it. His feet were trapped in the ground from the knees. The result was some kind of odd bridge formation.

The man watched him keep his balance with remarkable stamina. Wolf was slightly out of breath, and had received several cuts from Naruto's wind blades. He seemed to be fine, unless you had the eyes to see the signs of chakra depletion showing through. "Very good." he commented after a few seconds more. Naruto didn't turn his head to give him a hopeful, pleading expression, like he would have to Jiraiya or Itachi-sempai. He felt that it was a bad idea...

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Wolf turn around and walk away.

Below his mask, Fox's jaw flopped open. He was just going to- leave? Without untying him? That bastard. But then again, there was Cobra-

"Cobra-san," he began, but she blurred out of sight. A word arose in his mind, one that he didn't use much. Bitch. "Excuse me," he said to the man standing besides the place Cobra had been. "Can you-"

But then, he recognized him. Maito Gai. Dread curdled in his stomach. No, no, no, not the flaming hells of youth!

* * *

Naruto escaped as fast as it was polite- despite all of the man's oddity, he wasn't stupid or weak and deserved respect. Five minutes and he whipped away, tucking his mask into his belt, hidding from sight by his chuunin vest, and he sauntered into a steak resteraunt, feeling tired but thinking that it had been worth it. He rarely got a good fight these days...

A slight smile adorned his face as he ordered a heavy meal. There was a part of him that loved fighting, and it wasn't just the demon. It sang at the dance of battle, and reveled in bloodletting. It wasn't vicious, but it gloried in... Naruto closed his eyes, remembering the way his feet had whirled in the air, the feeling of weightlessness, the addictive rush of adrenaline and chakra, the way the world seemed to slow if he concentrated just right, the way his opponent moved- graceful and powerful, an equal in his own rights. The force behind their hits when they clashed-

(Clatter, clitter, zing, whump- metal on metal, flesh on flesh, the feeling of impact, a bit painful but worth it-)

Blades spinning midair, fire scorching, lightning sizzling, wind slicing. Naruto's eyes opened in dreamy recollection, part of him saying that he shouldn't take such pleasure in the memories. It disturbed him sometimes.

Information hit his mind. Naruto neatly dissected, assembled, and organized it. (One of his clones would kill itself every eight minutes. There were five left- he expected to be here for half an hour more.) No one was watching him. He relaxed marginally.

It was a habit Jiraiya had drilled into him. When he was younger, there had been many, many attempts on him. Poison, assassins, traps... he hadn't been able to use kage bunshin back then like he could now, because the Hokage and Jiraiya were afraid of what might happen if Naruto used his chakra, even when all signs pointed that the seal was intact and fully functioning. They had given him exercises to flex it, but he hadn't learned anything useful until he was eight or nine.

Even then, though... signs had showed. Whisker marks. Acute hearing. Fantastic sense of smell. Immunity against poison... Kyuubi, a pure being of chakra, still shone through him in various ways even when he hadn't used chakra. Naruto had survived, sometimes by the skin of his teeth, Jiraiya a constant guardian. He was thankful...

He took out the scroll Squad 15's files were in. He opened the mission file first, tucking all the others back into the scroll. He opened it. And read.

When his meal came, Naruto propped the file in front of the dish and ate, absently. The mission was simple enough. Keep an eye on Hatake Kakashi, kill him if he gets out of control. Naruto did not relish the idea much. Also, try to make Squad 15 work smoothly.

That was the problem, he felt. He could take down Hatake with Kyuubi's power, but... as he read on, the situation seemed to be hopeless.

Wolf, Red Owl, Leopard, Cobra, Beagle... Fox. Beagle had been sent in to do the same job he had to do now, but it seemed he had failed. The girl he was replacing had been Beagle's lover, whom the team had opted to leave behind in a dangerous situation- Red Owl and Wolf he hated especially for voting against rescuing her. Naruto felt a pang of pity for him- he didn't know what it was like to lose a team, as he was a solo worker, but it must be... bad.

The man Leopard... pessimistic, the file succinctly summarized. It said that he disliked everyone in his team, Cobra in particular. He didn't get along with anyone, but his clashes with them weren't spectacular. He just seemed to hoard a quiet hatred for the world in general.

Cobra was antagonistic towards anyone in general. Naruto had been hoping that it was just the weather. It didn't say anything about why, but Naruto expected that her file would reveal something about it.

Red Owl was, it seemed, the most well-adjusted member of the team so far. She was simply... efficient. Naruto could see why that could buy hatred. She didn't particularly like or dislike anyone on the team.

Hatake Kakashi was a good, efficient captain. He was just a cog in the machine, which just rolled and rolled by itself, doing its own job, and not helping anyone else with theirs. 'Shut down', was what the file described him as.

So. What exactly did the Sandaime want him to do with this mess? Why didn't he just disband the team?

_Because Squad 15 was for the miscellaneous. The leftovers._

That makes sense. Shut up. Naruto told himself, stabbing at the last piece of steak. His third bunshin died, assuring him of a stable situation. He pushed the information to the back of his mind, ignoring the phantom cramps in his legs that came from the memory of crouching in the shadows, blending into the background.

So... what to do, what to do.

He finished his meal, tucked the mission file into the scroll. Paid, tipped, left.

Normally, he rested for around fifteen minutes after lunch and then started training. This time, he just went home to read the files.

He started with Red Owl. Real name, Sakasa Muki. Nineteen. There was a blurred photo included, of a plain-looking girl with a slit-like scar on both cheeks. Sword wound, Naruto was guessing. Nasty. Clear brown eyes. A smattering of pimples on her forehead, but light. Family, deceased. Level-headed girl, promoted quickly- in the ANBU for two years. Qualifications were nothing to sneer at- she was a well-rounded shinobi.

Ninjutsu, fire element, but she had earth and lightning mastered. Excellent taijutsu, good speed, although she had nothing on him at his full power. Relatively weak genjutsu. Decent medical skills, well-acquainted with most poisons.

She was an unemotional girl, with the sort of psyche that was treasured in shinobi circles. Very well-adjusted, as Naruto had thought she would be when he'd read the mission file. Naruto read her medical report, a bit more slowly, because of the jargon. She was all right. Plenty of wounds in her time, but nothing too detrimental to her well being. He read her family history (short) and her Academy records (good) and her jounin instructor's memo, recommending her to the Black Ops.

He'd get along with her, Naruto felt. (Or was it hoped?)

The next one in the pile was Hatake Kakashi's, but Naruto decided to save it for last- less headaches, that way. He opened Leopard's.

It was remarkably short.

There was no name. No family history. One picture- a face with a sharp jaw and dark eyes like coals, hollowed cheekbones. Black hair, eyebrows plunging into a slight frown- the man radiated intense seriousness. No Academy records, either.

A cryptic 'Past abandoned' where all thouse should have been. Naruto realized, when he saw that. It was rare, cases like these, when a shinobi simply decided to destroy everything about his past. Not that his files were destroyed- that would never happen. Simply, another file was made, marking the birth of a new shinobi, with his past deleted from it, and his old files marked him dead.

He'd deleted his past almost seventeen years ago. Naruto's heart plummeted when he realized.

Kyuubi's attack... oh.

He sat in silence for a minute.

And continued to read- it was like trudging through treacle, even though the following information was just emotionless data.

He was Squad 15's medic nin, but an extremely accomplished fighter as well. Small chakra reserves for a male his age, but he had fantastic control. Also did something that was more than dabble but less than specialize in fuinjutsu. Ninjutsu, fire element. There was some information about his time at the Konoha Hospital, but surprisingly little information was included about his medical skills. Naruto began to see why, as he read on.

Leopard wasn't the type for healing. 'Brutal, cold, withdrawn' was the description from the most recent visit to his psychiatrist, but after that one was 'Exceptionately kind to animals, but seems to harbor a great pessimism about humans in general'...

What brought that on? Naruto wondered.

_Shinobi life_? the sarcastic reply. _The sheer corruption of filthy humans? Their despicable weakness, their_-

Naruto shut the voice out, and kept reading. His skills were good, Naruto concentrated on his personality. Philosophical. Negative about people, as mentioned. It didn't mention anything about why he had become that way- it would involve his past life, and Leopard had been that way from nineteen, when he was 'born'. Naruto surmised that he had been a sensitive man, and- he hated to admit it- being a shinobi had turned him that way. It wasn't unusual, people becoming disillusioned with ninja life...

Mental disorders, depression, PTSD weren't that uncommon, either. Especially the ones who had gone through war. Or the Kyuubi attack.

(Naruto didn't feel guilt about that- he had no reason to- but he got angry when he thought about it. He decided not to.)

There was a bit more, but upon skimming it Naruto found more about his qualifications. (He's qualified. Good, I'm happy.) He shut the file and moved on, feeling slightly unnerved. The effect of the file- the first nineteen years of his life cut- gave him an odd feeling.

Cobra... Naruto's eyes strayed to the clipped picture first, as usual. Hyuuga. So he hadn't been wrong, then.

Her family history... was extensive. As soon as his eyes alighted on the phrase 'Branch Hyuuga', he knew the girl was in deep shit.

He remembered Neji, back when they'd met. Harsh. Slicing contempt, bitterness. Hatred turned inside, so his hatred reflected off hatred and melted into something seething and furious. And on the outside... ice.

Cobra was probably the opposite. She radiated her emotions outwards. Burning it off, but it was endless, wasn't it? She must be vacant inside... she'd left herself nothing...

Oh, stop that, Naruto told himself. Don't be ridiculous... You know nothing about her.

His heart sank as he absorbed the information.

Hyuuga Hanabi. He knew the girl, a haughty, arrogant Main House snot. He rarely hated people- it was a waste of time and emotion. But he hated the girl. She was... she had the incredibly annoying combination of good skills as a shinobi and a superiority complex. One thing he wanted to do when he was Hokage was take her down a few notches. God, if that girl became the Head of Hyuuga... Konoha politics would get messy. The girl had a good brain on her, but the way she used it...

And besides, she'd killed Chika...

One of Neji's cousins, a Branch member as well. Naruto hadn't been very well-acquainted with her, but he had liked her well enough. One eye had been blind from birth, and the other eye had gone haywire trying to make up for it. The result was messy. Neji had cared for her as if she was his own sister. Hanabi hated Chika. There had been little fuss when she'd activated the Caged Bird seal- Chika had been, in the eyes of the Hyuuga... useless.

A warning. That's all Hanabi had gotten, basically.

Chika was Cobra's sister.

Naruto sucked air in, whistling slightly. Nasty. He remembered Neji mentioning something about Chika having a sister... so this Cobra was...

The family history section went on for two more pages, listing various antagonistic relationships Cobra, or rather, Chizu, had with family members, mostly Main House. It was painful to read...

It was almost a relief to read her skills section.

Good with Jyuuken, but she preferred weapons- twin naginata. She was ambidextrous, and very good with them. Exceptionally violent when fighting- sometimes, it clouded her clear thinking, but she was a competent enough shinobi, although the weakest on the squad- around high chuunin level. Apparently she resent that. (Naruto winced, thinking of his fight with Kakashi and the way she had glared at them) She used her Byakugan to spot visual genjutsu, but was weak to genjutsu for the other senses, which could sometimes be fatal.

Ninjutsu, fire element, imbued into her naginata. A well-rounded fighter, in that way, except for maybe the genjutsu. Her Byakugan would have to do for now.

Mental, now... ha, anger management problems, obviously. She was also an alcoholic. No records of PTSD, to his surprise, She'd been in the ANBU for almost a year. He wondered whether to be worried about that or not. It was weird to survive the Black Ops without some kind of mental trauma or another...

There were a few pages left, but he decided not to read them.

He'd just ask Neji, eh? Better insight, perhaps.

There were two files left, labeled 'Beagle' and 'Wolf'.

Ah, well.

Neji.

* * *

It was his second fight in a day. Neji obviously sensed it, and went easy on him. Taijutsu only. Naruto absently dodged his blows, twisted out his way, never striking back. Neji, used to this routine, did not get angry- like he would have, several years ago- and merely went faster. Naruto sped up to match him, and they wove around each other, never touching. Naruto enjoyed fighting Neji- he was innovative with his taijutsu and unpredictable in his movements.

Neji thrust forward his hand, faint blue chakra trailing behind, along with the loosened bandages. Naruto bent back, touching the ground with his hands - the attack missed him by a hair's breadth. Neji was going too fast to avoid the next attack, a kick that nailed him in his upper stomach as Naruto turned a rapid back flip and twisted.

Neji landed on one foot, using chakra to give him extra spinning momentum. One sweeping kick caught Naruto on the back, sending him tumbling across the dirt.

The clone smiled at Neji from the ground, and dissipated.

Neji growled. and stiffened when a kunai pressed against his throat.

"You shouldn't have used chakra when you landed, Neji." Naruto taunted, smiling. "Jyuuken is enough."

Neji sighed his hair, and sat down to do his hair again. Naruto sat down next to him. "When did you switch?"

"When you used chakra."

Neji's eyes closed, and the bulging veins around them pulsed once and melded back into the rest of his flesh. "You are... irritating."

Naruto nodded, used to this. "I'm sure you've already guessed I didn't come just to spar."

Neji's Byakugan flared to life again, looking at him closely. He muttered under his breath. The Byakugan died, and Neji slumped on the ground, ruining his perfectly arranged hair. Naruto had to smile. "Chakra... urgh. So. What you wanted to ask... it's a person?"

"Hyuuga Chizu."

Neji sucked a breath in. "Why do you need to know?"

Naruto hesitated. "Um."

Neji didn't know he'd joined the ANBU yet, did he?... But revealing one's team members wasn't classified... probably.

"I'm in the same ANBU unit as her."

Ah, he should have told him about his entrance into the Black Ops first, right?

Neji's fingers closed around his wrist, hard. "What?" Even through exhaustion, his friend's eyes burned clear and lucid. "Chizu? The redhead?"

"Yes."

Neji sighed. And blinked. "ANBU?"

"Uhn..."

"When?"

"...Yesterday."

"You met her yesterday?"

"No, today."

"Oh. Okay."

Neji seemed shell-shocked. He looked impassive, as usual, but there was a subtle hint of tension around his jaw- that was enough to tell Naruto that Neji was disturbed with this new information.

"Chizu." he said at last, sounding pensive. "Hmm. I've lost contact with her, actually. It's not good to contact her, these days, Hiashi-sama is considering disowning her..."

"But then she'd lose her Byakugan, wouldn't she?"

"I think she plans to go nukenin if he tries that." Neji said, sounding tired. "She'd rather die than let them take anything more from her."

Another bleak pause, the two teenagers lounged on the grounds.

"Let's go in and talk over tea." Neji said, standing up.

Naruto agreed.

"Very well. Chizu." Neji said, fifteen minutes later, a safe expanse of tablecloth and delicate silverware between them. He sounded like he was having teeth pulled out of his nose- Naruto rather disliked asking him about this, Neji rarely enjoyed talking about his family. "How much do you know?"

Naruto thought back. "Chika, the girl Hanabi-" It was the right word, Naruto assured himself, "Murdered... was her sister. And she's been volatile ever since. She hates the Main House... and most clans. Including the Namikaze."

"Ha. Yes." Neji said- there was no humor in his laugh. "Chizu has always been passionate. Do you remember Chika well?"

Redheaded, like her sister. She'd worn bandages over her mutilated eyes, and had been quiet but cheerful. A really nice person.

"Not really." Naruto admitted.

"Chika was Chizu's life." Neji said, sighing. "I didn't love her as much Chizu did- but then again, it would have been hard to match Chizu's obsession towards protecting her sister. Hanabi hated Chika- she thought she was a weakling."

"Hanabi thinks everyone is a weakling." Naruto said, with rare loathing in his voice.

"Indeed." Neji agreed, with an undercurrent of hatred in his usually dispassionate voice. "She activated Chika's seal. Chizu didn't know until she got home from a mission- her seal was activated until she fell unconscious. She was hospitalized for weeks, and when she came out she received counselling, but it was never enough. She distanced herself from the family- more than ever- and joined the ANBU around a year ago. She lives apart from the family, and as I said, it's being debated to disown her, and destroy her Byakugan."

Neji ran his hand through his hair, pupil-less eyes staring off into the distance. "Any Hyuuga associating with her runs the risk of suffering the same fate."

"You said-" Naruto had to clear his throat to try again- "Said that she was going to run away from the village if they disowned her."

"Yes." Neji affirmed, in a hard voice. "I know she does."

Naruto did not ask why. Neji had his ways.

"Naruto. I have a request."

Neji's voice was formal. Naruto peered at him, carefully. He might not have the Byakugan, but he could read the hesitance and rigidity in Neji's face. "If Chizu tries to go rogue, I want you to kill her, as painlessly as possible."

Naruto thought. "Because... if she does go rogue... the Hyuuga will send their own agents for her." he thought aloud. "And they won't be so gentle."

Neji nodded, stiff.

Naruto frowned. "Neji, your family sucks." he said, as lightly as he could. "When I'm Hokage..."

Neji could read the promise in his eyes, and smiled. Naruto blinked. (Neji? Smiling? Surely not.-)

"Many have promised to change us." he said, lightly. "You are the only one whom I believe."


	4. Chapter IV

I'm disappointed in you readers. The number of those who fav'ed my fic are 2.5 times the number of reviews. D:

I don't mind people not reviewing... after all, that's what you get when you write such a rare pairing... which, obviously, few people would be compelled to read... but that's just downright crazy.

(Starts to mutter statistics over and over under breath, looking forlorn)

Chapter IV

* * *

Beagle. The picture was that of a brunet with a smile-smirk on his face, with his hitai-ate turned backwards. He recognized him, and his heart gave a small _clunk_.

Beagle was Genma. _Beagle_ was _Genma_. Naruto tried to equate the image of cheerful, senbon-biting Shiranui Genma with the picture of the grim dog mask he had before him.

He remembered Genma. He hung around with Raidou sometimes. At least, he used to. Naruto hadn't seen him lately...

Naruto skimmed through his file with ease, seeing as he knew Genma pretty well. Age, fighting style... all familiar, Genma used genjutsu with taijutsu in very inventive ways, sometimes with weapons. Natural element was earth- Naruto had always assumed that it was water, Genma used it very deftly... Genma liked little jutsu, little subtle techniques that pushed his opponent little by little towards losing. He knew several one-hit assassination techniques, but they weren't really his style.

The personality section surprised him a bit. Naruto remembered Genma as easygoing and cheerful. Now, it described him as 'sullen'. That didn't fit. So, why?... What had changed him?

Yes- it said that he was the previous 'buffer' for Squad 15. He had failed spectacularly when he fell in love with one of the team, a girl called 'Cricket'. There was a separate page on her- Naruto skipped it.

Team history was longer than he'd expected, seeing as Genma had been on the team for only a few months. Antagonistic relationship with Wolf and Red Owl, who voted to leave Cricket behind when she was captured by some nukenin who had murdered several Fire Country civilians.

Oh... _Genma_...

With a slightly heavier heart, he skipped the relationships part and stopped briefly at the medical history section- he'd never known that Genma had tinnitus- and sped through to the end, and only then did Naruto realize that he hadn't taken anything in at all.

Well, too bad. He made an inaudible promise in some obscure corner of his mind to return to Beagle's file to read it more closely. Later. He went onto Wolf's, sighing as he felt the thickness of it. He sped through it, much like he had through the latter part of Beagle's file, although not quite as fast.

Genin at six, chuunin a few months later. Jounin at thirteen, joins ANBU in fourteen. Has been there ever since. Brief experience as a hunter-nin.

Student of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. Sole member and heir to the Hatake clan after Hatake Sakumo's suicide.

Near-mastery of all five elements, but naturally lightning-inclined. Very good control, despite high-jounin level reserves. Around nine hundred fifty jutsu mastered, thanks to his transplanted doujutsu, the Sharingan in his left eye from his deceased comrade, Uchiha Obito. Listed; see page...

There was a section on Uchiha Obito. He and Kakashi had been on the same chuunin team under Naruto's father. They hadn't gotten along well, right until the moment when Obito died.

Well, that was stupid.

He started from the beginning and read the paragraph again, a bit slowly. So, Obito had gone for their other captured teammate, some girl named Rin, Kakashi had went on to complete the mission, but had returned at the last moment to rescue Rin together with Obito. Rin had survived- well, she'd died in the Kyuubi attack, but _then_ she'd survived- but Obito had died, and had given... Kakashi his newly awoken Sharingan? Saying that it was his birthday present?

Naruto stared in disbelief. That was... wow. That was... so symbolic and meaningful and touching and so _stupid_. It sounded like something out of a bad novel.

But things that sounded like they came out of a bad novel in _reality_... Was a different matter.

Naruto frowned. Wait. Back to Beagle and Cricket. This scenario... sounded familiar. This was weird. When the cold, apathetic genius who had once been a nice person but had been turned heartless due to some traumatic event turned nice again, they didn't just go back to being cold. It went against everything in the book. Er.

He was reading too much of Jiraiya's books.

It made sense. Ideals like that- caring for the team and all- didn't survive the real world. The real world was different. Personal was not the same as important. People briefly went through fits of madness when they thought it was, but it wasn't. When Hatake entered ANBU, that new... 'warmth'... must have been shattered almost instantly. Choices didn't come easy in the Black Ops.

Naruto sighed, and returned to the file. Odd. The Sandaime always told him that he was too idealistic, but Naruto thought that he was one of the least idealistic people he knew...

Excellent genjutsu skills- not specialist level, but near enough. Particularly skilled at the pain illusions so often used for interrogation.

Superb taijutsu- no particular style favored, but over twenty five various styles from different origins copied and used. Favored moves, see page...

Weapons; standard. Chakra tanto, Hatake clan inheritance. Sharingan, three-tomoe level. Unable to be deactivated, constant chakra drain.

Medical history... diagnosed with PTSD on seven different occasions, see list on...

(Year 60, December 15th; see 'Hatake Sakumo'. Year 62, June 5th, see 'Chuunin records', Year 67, June 21st, see 'Uchiha Obito/Sharingan'. Year 68, October 10th, see 'Kyuubi attack'. Year...)

In occasions 2, 3, 4, subject was not given treatment or resting time due to the demand of shinobi at the time (War, war, repairing damage wrought by the Kyuubi no Kitsune respectively). Subject completed obligatory number of counseling sessions and returned promptly to ninja duties, against disapproval of most of the medic-nin who treated him on all other occasions.

The last half decade have been without notable signs of mental deterioration, except for the recent episodes in the last two, three months- four brief lapses in concentration and lucidity... flashbacks to the Iwa war, Kyuubi attack, etc- see medic's note for theories for the cause...

Predominant theory in medic circles is that forcibly repressed emotions and continuous exposure to various, high-level traumatic situations have taken their toll of the patient's mental health. (For more information, see Yamanaka Fujita's treatise on the treatment of...) By no means an unusual state in shinobi, particularly those stubborn ones who insisted on destroying their psychological equilibrium by refusing treatment and insisting on continuing their duties without fully healing.

Diagnosed with melancholic depression, year 79, although medics presume that actual depression started long before that. Taking antidepressants with no visible effect. No eating disorders.

Despite all records, zero suicide attempts.

It was a medical record that would have baffled many civilian-trained doctors.

To shinobi, it was a whole different matter.

Since Yamanaka Fujita, the effects of being trained as shinobi from a young age had practically become a separate area of study in medic circles. When her treatise was published, Academy graduation age rose from eight or nine to twelve, and the Academy curriculum was adjusted so to make sure that the students weren't exposed to overly traumatic ideas or images.

However, Hatake Kakashi's youth was before that... and in a situation of war. In such tension, such a prodigy's innocence was bound to have been destroyed for the good of Konoha. Chuunin at six- the idea was ridiculous to Naruto. At that age he'd been... well, hard at his studies, actually, but he'd been genuinely interested in what he was learning, even the messier parts of the anatomy had just been technical details to him.

He'd been orphaned since six, besides, after his father's suicide. His mother had died in childbirth. As a ninja, he was acknowledged as a full-fledged adult, and had no guardian- not that it mattered, he had been constantly sent out to battle. That was bound to be unhealthy. Naruto stewed in sympathy as he flipped through the pages. He'd seen messed up ninja, and Hatake Kakashi took the prize. It was a wonder he was still sane, but...

Oh, clans. Damn them, he could almost understand Chizu's hatred for them. At least his training had been necessity, and he'd been allowed time to be human. Someday he was going to write a book on this, 'How To Raise a Well-Adjusted and Mentally Healthy Shinobi'. Or something. Clans were just a bunch of ninja who'd been in the business for so long that when they tried to raise a child, all they taught them was killing. And then there were other clans. Rivalry. 'My kid is going to be better than yours'. And then started the early training. Children forged into weapons. Hindered brain development in certain areas, mostly concerned with emotion. Some of them made it into adulthood, and when they retired, most committed suicide, because they couldn't cope with normal life...

And of course, Kakashi would have been taught techniques for controlling emotions and stress early on. Things that were fine for children for whom the techniques were just ways to deal with things when they were really bad. Children whose first reaction when facing a traumatic situation was to 'calm down, relax, try to make sense of it, deal with it...'. But if you learned shinobi mental control techniques from childhood, you'd become so inured to them so that when you faced even ordinary situations like a fussy cashier or a frustrating crossword puzzle, your first reaction would be to 'shut down' all those parts of your brain that was giving you trouble forcibly... and those things were bound to come tumbling out like too many blankets from an overstuffed closet... eventually...

Naruto was just surprised it had happened so late. Hatake was probably in his early thirties...

The file returned to the aforementioned 'lapses in concentration and lucidity'. It was probably what the Sandaime was worried about.

All four of them had been in presence of his ANBU team or medics. Naruto had to wonder if that was all- if he had any episodes in private, he didn't seem like the sort to report them.

The first had lasted for around twenty seconds, the last seven minutes. In between, they steadily got longer. Naruto felt a pit open in his gut, this was _not_ good...

The first time, he'd been in the middle of a mission- assassination. Right after giving the signal to switch positions, he had suddenly broken formation and brutally torn into the two targets without his usual finesse or stealth. The targets, far from helpless, had fought back. None of the squad except for the second in command, Leopard, had seen- Leopard hadn't interfered for a few seconds, from pure curiosity. He had reported that his captain had reached for weapons that weren't there, and had seemed confused. He had moved slower than usual, and didn't use his Sharingan at all, even when he was losing. Instead, he had made the seals for a Chidori- that was when Leopard had taken out both targets and knocked out his captain.

He'd been normal when he woke up in the Konoha Hospital. A bit disoriented, though. He'd remembered his moment of madness, and had waved it away. No one else had been very convinced though. He'd been sent for checkups, which had revealed nothing too different from last time...

The man had been fine for two months- and then he'd suffered from two consecutive flashbacks, which took place in the office before Leopard had taken him to the hospital again- this time, the squad was alerted to their captain's condition...

The fourth had been the most serious, and had taken place only two weeks back, in the hospital. Thankfully the attending medic was also a highly trained fighter, and had managed to take Kakashi down before he did anything really serious. He had demolished the entire room and various medical equipments... which he'd paid for, later... but at least no one had been killed.

But the file offered no excuse for keeping Hatake on as a shinobi.

Naruto put it down and thought. The tense situation with Ame- even with Pein gone (At least, Naruto thought he was gone- and was almost certain he had gone- with the amount of destructive chakra he had released at their hideout... no mortal could have survived that...) for one, but there was very little chance of war, wasn't there?

And there could be personal affection... after all; he was the Yondaime's student...

Naruto thought for a while, and came up with six hypotheses, all of which relied on situations he was pretty sure didn't happen.

He went to see the Hokage.

* * *

"Naruto-sama."

He never got used to hearing that- nor seeing the Hokage's secretary bow respectfully to him as he padded up the stairs. One shouldn't be respected for being powerful- one should be respected for the things one had done with that power- or not. The Sandaime Hokage was wise and good and all that, but Naruto didn't quite think he could be the same. He wasn't the most powerful ninja in Konoha- except when he used Kyuubi, of course, then he was the most powerful mortal in the entire Shinobi Continent. But that didn't count, did it? His judgment clouded when he used it.

Of course, it was just useless worrying- when the Hokage had noticed his uncertainty he and Jiraiya had sat him down and paralyzed him and read out a list of good reasons why he'd make a good Hokage... Naruto thought it was absurd; really, the only reason that had made sense to him was that he was the Yondaime's son, his prodigy child- a symbol to the people.

Jiraiya would make a better Hokage, he was certain. Except for the porn, of course.

"Sandaime-sama." Naruto said, entering the Hokage's office. His surrogate grandfather raised his aged face and sent a smile at him. "Feel like some paperwork, Naruto?" he said, motioning to a formidable stack of paper.

Naruto blinked upon seeing it, and formed three shadow clones- one would do the paperwork, the other two would check it to look for mistakes.

"Cheater." the Hokage sighed, but kept smiling anyway. He discreetly added half of his own pile to the clones', and pushed the rest to the original Naruto- who promptly pushed it to his clones again. One of them sent a death glare at him, and resumed work.

"Why are you here?"

Naruto thought for a moment, and took out one of his C-space scrolls, unrolled it, and took out two styrofoam cups of lukewarm coffee and warmed them with a deft jolt of chakra. The Hokage took one with obvious pleasure. "Thank you, Naruto. Your bribe has been received. Now, tell me."

"Hatake Kakashi." Naruto said. "He has remarkable skills as a shinobi, but his mental condition- whatever it is- renders it useless. He's a danger to the squad and Konoha. Why didn't you put him in retirement?"

The Third frowned, lacing his fingers absently. "I see you are concerned, Naruto... And rightly so, of course. Kakashi-kun is highly unstable at the moment. However, I believe he can recover."

Naruto frowned, doubtfully. "He'll need to recover from over twenty years of suppressing his emotions. To be honest, I don't know how he survived this long."

"The medics are of the same opinion." the Sandaime said coolly. "But you do not know Kakashi like I do, Naruto. I believe I made the best choice by sending you in."

"Yes, but I have doubts about that, Hokage-sama. I might just make the whole situation worse-"

The Hokage's eyes narrowed a fraction. It was minute. A jounin might have missed it, but Naruto's senses were well above the average jounin's. He was hiding something.

That's_ it_, Naruto thought. His primary motive. He's hiding it. Something about Hatake Kakashi. But my ignorance might hinder me from stabilizing him, wouldn't it? Should I push him? Or shouldn't I? Is this a test? If it is, what for? And why now?

"I know Kakashi, Naruto." the Hokage repeated solemnly. "Just stick with him. I believe that you yourself will realize how to heal him, in time."

(In time? Naruto thought sourly._ In time_?)

"I hope so." Naruto found himself saying, almost casually. "And, by the way, do you have any specific instructions for if he loses control again in a mission?"

"Knock him out." Sandaime answered instantly. "If you can't do that, resort to Kyuubi. But he must not die."

Naruto paused. There was something he hadn't asked yet.

"How goes the situation with Ame?" he inquired.

The aged leader's expression darkened. "It's too early to be sure yet, Naruto." he said. "But... I'm afraid, not well. The nobles are warring, and many people know Konoha to be responsible for Pein's death."

"I thought..." Naruto said, frowning.

"Some of the Amegakure ninja recognized the Kyuubi's chakra. I hope to resolve this situation before you step into my place- if you do, things will worsen rapidly."

That reminded Naruto. Something he'd been thinking about lately. Usually in the middle of the night, when he awoke from dreams of a town full of corpses. "Has it been confirmed that it was Uchiha Sasuke who killed Orochimaru?"

"I'm almost certain, yes. Orochimaru is most assuredly dead; Uchiha Sasuke claimed to have killed him before he suddenly disappeared quite recently. I do not believe he is dead, though, nor his team."

"Hebi." Naruto muttered sourly. "He's like one of those cartoon villains who never die no matter what you do."

"Now now." the Hokage reprimanded. "Sasuke was a very sweet child when he was younger."

Naruto raised a brow skeptically. "A sweet Uchiha child? That's new."

Sandaime smiled sheepishly. "Well, he was nice enough. Very devoted to Itachi..."

Naruto's expression went frosty before he remembered that he should have kept his face neutral.

"We are not going over this again." the Sandaime said in a low, threatening voice.

"I don't want to, either." Naruto said. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he dared to ask this. But surely the Sandaime wouldn't have any objections? Moral ones, at least? "Sir, I have a request."

The Hokage's face went wooden. "I dread those words, Naruto." he said, trying to joke. "The first time you said that you were five and asking for a kusari-gama."

"It saved my life, didn't it?" Naruto said, playing along.

"Indeed, you used it quite... effectively."

Naruto remembered the bloodied assassin from Kumogakure. A smile came to his face, unbidden. "Yes sir. I did."

"So. What is it?" the Hokage asked, visibly steeling his spine for it.

"I want Uchiha Itachi to return to Konohagakure."

"_Absolutely not_." the words laced with killing intent. It barely shook Naruto.

"Under disguise, of course." he completed.

"He won't do it."

"Perhaps he will." Naruto returned. "A wanderer's life is one that he does not deserve, a shinobi of his caliber."

"He won't accept." the Hokage repeated confidently. "I know you feel bad about the massacre, Naruto, but this is no way to make amends. I agree that a nukenin is a status he does not deserve, but nonetheless!- Itachi-kun has many painful memories attached to this village. And what if someone finds out? There will be an uproar. If we reveal to the public that he was innocent, there will be dire consequences for the Council- and for the Hokage. I may not be talking about myself."

Naruto blinked, slowly. "He has the Sharingan. He is a genjutsu master." he pointed out. "I'd say that there's very little chance of him being found out."

"That's not the point." the Hokage said, a bit more slowly. Naruto knew he was thinking about it. "And besides, his position is beneficial to us. He makes a very good spy."

He couldn't keep the derision out of his voice. "He deserves more than that."

He realized to late that he was radiating killing intent. He stopped. "I apologize, Hokage-sama. I lost control."

The Hokage was silent for a few seconds. "Naruto-kun," he started, sounding weary and peevish. "Explain our argument to me now. Our positions in it. Our strengths and weaknesses."

It was a diplomatic exercise that the Hokage, when he had been Naruto's mentor, had made him do many time. Naruto barely had to think to reply. "You are worried that, should Uchiha Itachi return, he would reveal the secret of the Uchiha massacre to the public, resulting in extreme chaos. But you also know that there is very little chance he will do that. I don't think you have any really good reasons for preventing him from returning here, but you don't want him to, for obvious reasons. You will rely heavily on the fact that he will refuse to return if asked to do so. And I suspect that you are also worried about his mental stability- after all, one does not go through what he did without any damage to his psyche."

"Close, Naruto, close." the Hokage said, almost smiling. "You read my mind. Don't bother to continue your analysis. What do you think I'll tell you to now?"

"Er." Naruto said eloquently. "Send a messenger hawk to Uchiha Itachi, asking him to come back to Konoha, listing the conditions of his return. Because you know he'll say no."

The Hokage's eyebrows rose under his massive hat. "Astute of you. You'll make a fine Hokage. Go on."

Naruto shrugged as he stood up. He knew he'd lost. "It was worth a try."

The Hokage smiled in weary amusement. "I admire the sympathy you harbor for him, Naruto. But there will be times when you'll have to harden your heart."

Naruto didn't think much of his heart.

* * *

Leopard looked into the mirror every day when he looked up. It was a ritual. Predictability got shinobi killed, he knew, but it was still something he couldn't give up. It wasn't vanity- he had never had much of that. When he woke up, he felt too much like what he had been before he had begun the second phase of his life. He woke up with memories, too many of them. He hated that.

Looking in the mirror dispelled that sharply. He'd been looking himself in the face for almost seventeen years, but always his own eyes jolted him back into the present. They were like coals, burning in his face with too much intensity. They told him things.

A man knew he was going wrong when things like that happened.

Leopard woke up at two in the morning. This wasn't habit; his sleeping times were always irregular. He liked Konoha at night. It was quiet and peaceful and he could see the stars...

And there were always a few strays around. He always took food outside with him to feed them.

Man, Leopard thought as he walked outside. It was the hottest part of summer, and even in the night the village seethed with vaguely uncomfortable warmth. They are... with some distaste, Leopard summoned up an image of a human body in his mind, dissecting into nothing but blood and bones and flesh. All put together, he thought, they make something so foul and loathsome that it is disgusting even to kill them.

And, with a rare flash of spirit, I wish they were gone.

Leopard read books, sometimes. The villains and bitter people had always been made that way by some horrible life-changing event. It was apparently a way to give them depth, an excuse to just not make them evil from the beginning. No one wrote a story where a man, untouched by some awful tragedy or meeting with a villain who would gradually corrupt him, just simply sat down and thought about the world, its inhabitants, the way it ran and decided to hate it. Because it was rotten.

Leopard like to think that it was him. He wished that he had been like that, just carefully thinking the world over and deciding that it was a hopeless cause. In fact, Leopard had started loathing the world far before coming up with reasonable excuses for doing so, and it had all started seventeen years ago, when an awful tragedy, a horrible-life changing event had touched him forever.

It disgusted him. Leopard disliked the thought that he was a living cliché.

His aimless trudge through the village had led him towards the section of the town that was nicknamed the Small Clans street. Very very small mansions where the wannabe clans resided. The nearly extinct clans, the newbie clans. Just... small clans.

He knew his ANBU captain Wolf's house was here, somewhere. He never bothered to look for it.

Drearily, Leopard stared up at his favorite. Namikaze. He liked it because the walls were covered by extremely thick ivy. The house, too, except for the windows and the door. Leopard rather liked the color in the night, a kind of very deep viridian.

A chakra signature flared to his right, before the presence clamped down on it again. Leopard turned his masked head, left hand plucking out a stiletto knife. The figure raised his hands- it was a fellow ANBU, red stripes painted on the sides of his mask, fresh and new. The streetlights illuminated little- Leopard couldn't see the color of his eyes, although his bright yellow hair was clear enough.

Leopard frowned. There weren't too many blonde males with that hairstyle in the ANBU, but he rarely socialized, anyway. But that boy was a rookie, if his mask was any indication, so of course he wouldn't know him.

"Kitsune of Squad 15," the boy was saying. "You're Leopard, aren't you?"

"That I would be." Leopard answered coolly. "You are Koorogi's replacement."

"Cricket-san, yes." 'Fox' agreed. "I hope we can get along."

The boy took off his mask. He had the most brilliant blue eyes Leopard had ever seen. (He was frozen into place for a few seconds, remembering the same shade in the eyes of the Yondaime Hokage before he had gone off the war. His eyes had been intense, but this boy- what he held... If the Yondaime's aura had been that of electricity, of lightning authority and speed and energy, his son's was that of rock, solid, immovable, so gigantic in their implacable determination that one felt shocked when they took a closer look at his face and eyes.)

Leopard did not return the courtesy. His voice was frosty when he spoke to his now-teammate. "I never take off my mask."

"I did hear that about you." the boy said pleasantly, running a hand through his hair and hooking his mask onto his belt. "I can't imagine how you do it- it starts to feel uncomfortable after an hour or so, for me. I suppose I'll get used to it, eh?"

The boy gave Leopard a friendly smile.

"You'd better hope you will." Leopard said, unyielding. He turned around, and walked away with a goodbye.

To his astonishment, he found that the Yondaime's son was walking right beside him. Leopard wasn't as good at stealth as some, but he was still very good. Namikaze's chakra was muffled perfectly. Leopard could have sworn that he was walking alone, except for the very prominent mane of gold bobbing up and down as they walked. He couldn't smell, hear or feel him with his chakra.

"I commend you on your stealth." he ventured, feeling surprised with himself.

"Thank you." the boy said, not quite managing to hide his surprise. Or was that too an act? "Er. It's a nice night..."

The sky, at least, was clear. The stars shone down by thousands, Leopard looked up, and didn't say anything. "Why did you come?" he asked abruptly. "This isn't coincidence."

"It could be." At Leopard's cold stare, the boy smiled. "To tell the truth... I wanted to ask you about the rest of my team, so I can avoid making blunders when I really start working with them..."

One part of Leopard's brain warned him that this was his future Hokage he was talking to...

To hell with it, Leopard thought. He's not the Hokage yet, he's just a little brat who hasn't even proven himself to me yet.

"Learning by trial and error is just part of the whole ordeal." he said crisply. He looked straight ahead, avoiding Fox's crystalline gaze. "And really, there's nothing you can do that can make things worse. Good night, Kitsune, I am retiring for the night."

To his surprise, the brat didn't protest. Instead, he quietly laughed, and bid him a good night.

* * *

Preview:

He walked into the tent, almost dreamily. There was a dark haired woman sitting inside, staring at something under the table. There was a sound of a page being flipped over. "I sense a great romance coming up." she said without looking up. "You will meet a dark, mysterious stranger."

"Will I." Itachi said dourly.


	5. Fortuneteller, SelfInsert

AN: Chapter is shorter than the previous ones, 'cos I had some trouble with it. And as usual, (heartfelt sigh) _typos_. If I type without paying attention weird things happen to my sentences. Ick.

(O. o) I was stunned at some of the reviews. I provide a fascinating basis for the character differences? The backstory is smoothly it is made part of the story with no lag in the plot? I go down with the details? This is news to me... I'm just trying to write a story that isn't too bad, while not really trying my best. I don't know what is my best, but I don't want to try it, that's certain. So... _troublesome_...

Thanks for the positive feedback, all of you. If I were a more modest person, I would have said that I don't deserve it. But I'm not, so I'll just say thank you, shall I?

Hinata won't be making many appearances in this story, and it is highly unlikely she will play a large role.

* * *

"He has to wake up."

The elderly medic that the girl had summoned shook his head slowly. He didn't know who the man in front of him was, but it was clear from the despair on the woman's face that he was close to her. "He never will."

"That's not true. It can't be true." the woman whispered, her eyes misting as she stared at the patient. They stood in his clinic, a sterile, starkly decorated place. Her voice didn't waver as she spoke, wiping away the tears before they fell. "Because..."

"Lady, I've seen lots of dead people." the man said shortly. "They never come live 'gain, despite what their folks might want to believe."

He felt a little jerk in his chest as she whipped her face towards him, intense, mad eyes pinning him. The girl had lost her world...

"He'll never wake up." the medic said. "You look like a sensible gel, so if I was you I'd get him euthanized, or put him on them equipment the fancy doctors up at the capital have these days so you can watch him sleep forever-"

"I'm _tired_ of hearing you fucks talk about him like that!" the woman screamed, fisting her hands. The doctor suddenly found his back pressed against the wall, his feet dangling a foot from the floor. He coughed and choked, but this was hardly the first tantrum he'd experienced from a disenchanted family member. He stared back into her mad eyes, which were streaming again. "He's not any ordinary man- he _can't_ be dead, I know he isn't- **WAKE HIM UP**!"

The doctor's sympathy withered. "Get out of my clinic." he said, almost calm. "Find someone else who'll be cruel enough to lie to you. Reality's a-knocking, I'm sorry for your loss."

The woman hissed. "Your last words were pathetic." she said, drawing her hand back. The doctor thought he'd be let go, but instead she thumped him against the wall. It wasn't a hard thump, but the thumb pressed against the doctor's temple and the jolt of chakra that passed through the jumble of nerves beneath it made sure that indeed, the doctor's last words were that of sympathy for another's death.

* * *

"Oy. Brat."

"Hmm?" Naruto said, musing on his tea, blindfolded by his hitai-ate. "Jiraiya, does the label on the cup say that the leaves are from Taki, or Ame?"

Jiraiya peered at the ceramic cup. "Taki." he said. "What are you doing?"

Naruto pushed his forehead protector up, and smiled. "Neji can do it with his eyes closed." he explained. "What?"

"Message from your ANBU squad." Jiraiya said, tossing him a note. "Longish mission, pack lightly for about three or four days. I'll be seeing you."

Naruto pushed aside his tea and stood up. "Finally." he sighed. "I was beginning to think that the ANBU did nothing but lie around and lounge."

Jiraiya's snort was heard from the other room.

After changing into his normal attire- chuunin vest and trousers- and packing his ANBU gear and a few scrolls, he left the house.

Naruto walked leisurely down the streets of Konoha, two clones flanking him. Just in case. I'm my own bodyguard, he thought, and laughed a bit. On the way to the HQ, he passed a petshop, and paused a bit at the sight of a large reddish dog in her glass prison, four or five puppies nestled close to her side. He stared a bit...

And continued walking. He was a cat person.

* * *

Itachi wandered through the festival. Costumed children giggled behind stalls. There was an ice cream cone held in his hand- he regarded it dubiously. It was pink and dribbling.

A memory from two tomoe, his younger brother shyly handing him a cone while he was training...

Thinking about Sasuke gave him an odd feeling. He'd really gone wrong there, hadn't he?

He found himself standing in a short line in front of the water balloon stall. A dart was pressed into his hand; a brunette gave him a shy smile. "My nephew-" she said, gesturing at an enthusiastic boy wearing a black wig and a scowling red mask, "-sort of insisted... I don't like this very much, so I'll get out of the line."

She backed away, and Itachi found that there was a strip of paper wrapped around the dart. A phone number, most likely. Without looking, he pretended not to notice- and when the disappointed boy got out of line, watching him with crossed arms and a pout, Itachi threw the dart in a slow, fancy over arm motion. It hit the very side of the farthest balloon, narrowly brushing it. The balloon sagged in a half-hearted way, water dripping.

The boy booed.

"I have a horrible aim." Itachi said in a monotone as he accepted a bag of goldfish from the stall owner, and handed it to the boy without looking. There was a gasp as the boy nearly dropped it.

"Thank you, sunglasses-san!" the boy cheered, and ran off. His aunt took a moment in following, looking at him sideways before dashing off towards her charge.

A half-coiled piece of paper lay on the ground, the earth around it soaked. A bright-colored dart lay a few inches away.

Itachi wandered around, basking in the sun and the children's shouts- it was so loud and normal and warm...

He wished he wasn't just ambling around with nothing to do, nowhere to go. At least, alone. Even Kisame would have showed a bit of enthusiasm, like pointing out tasty looking children, providing a bit of amusement...

Itachi wasn't the type to delude himself. He wished Namikaze Naruto was here.

He adjusted his shades. Where had been his hormones when they were supposed to appear? he wondered, almost depressed. I was waiting for them when I was thirteen. I was waiting for them when I was seventeen. Turns out they were lurking so they could ambush me at twenty five.

He spotted a fancy tent, swaths of silk and strings of beads decorating the entrance. It was so ridiculous and so... _pink_. And there were actually people going into it.

Fortune-telling? he read, distastefully. He didn't believe in fate. The world was just physics. Something happened, and then something else did. Time passed, life went on. Love was something people had invented, it appeared, to keep themselves occupied...

Well, it felt different when you were in it, Itachi admitted to himself ruefully. Namikaze Naruto was something he kept locked away from his perception of reality. He warped everything, like a pebble on water...

He was getting sentimental.

He walked into the tent, almost dreamily. There was a dark haired woman sitting inside, staring at something under the table. There was a sound of a page being flipped over. "I sense a great romance coming up." she said without looking up. "You will meet a dark, mysterious stranger."

"Will I." Itachi said dourly.

The woman dropped her book. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, a blush dusting her cheeks as she took in Itachi's slender frame and face. "I just, um... haha..."

"Tell me my fortune." Itachi said in a monotone.

"You will... let me see my cards..." the woman said, still blushing, spreading a quarter of a tarot deck haphazardly on the table. One of them was turned up the wrong way. "Oh, _damn_..."

She looked at him unimpressed face. "Okay, I've pretty much ruined everything, haven't I." she sighed, dropping her accent. "Can I just give you some romantic advice instead? That's what I gave to all the girls before you..."

Itachi blinked. "Why not." he said.

"Have any girlfriends?" the woman said, leaning back on her chair, taking off the swath of cloth on her hair. Black curls tumbled down to her shoulders, and she grinned. "And I mean the 's', mind you."

"None." Itachi said.

"Really?" she said enthusiastically. "Can I ask-"

"No."

"Aww." she said, throwing her hands up into the air. "You suck. Why do you want romantic advice, anyway?"

Itachi thought about that. "I like someone."

"Uh. So why isn't she dating you yet?" the girl asked, dubiously, fanning herself with her romance novel.

"She's a he."

The girl's jaw flopped open. Tears filled her eyes. Itachi wondered if she was a homophobe-"

"Yaoi!" she squealed. "Yaoi! Yaoi! Yaoi!"

Itachi eyed her dubiously. She visibly forced herself to calm down. "Excuse me?"

"Tell me more." the girl begged, leaning forward. Her eyes were sparkling. "Is he good looking? Nice?"

"He's blonde." Itachi said, finding himself oddly willing to talk about Naruto. "Slightly short for his age. Slender. He has blue eyes..." Itachi trailed off for a second. "He has marks on his cheeks, like whiskers. And nice cheekbones. And he's very..."

Sweet didn't fit Naruto. Naruto was... determination and willpower and occasional innocence. He'd seen bloodshed and human ugliness but he still believed in certain things, although he thought he didn't. Naruto wormed into your life and stayed there long after he left...

"Very..." Itachi started again, and realized that he was at loss. "Well, he is nice." he said, trying to fill the eager listening silence the girl emanated. "I..."

He was confused. He knew who Naruto was in his mind, but somehow the explanation got all jumbled up somewhere in between his brain and his mouth.

"Never mind." he said, shaking his head.

"So, does he like you back?" the girl said avidly. "Say, does he have a tragic past?"

"A what?" Itachi repeated stupidly (i.e. Itachi's 'stupidly' was his usual monotone. Repeating what someone else said, in Itachi's opinion, was the really stupid part of it.). This girl constantly threw him off balance. "No. He's very..."

Not normal, Itachi thought. He couldn't possibly be normal...

"Well-adjusted." he finished.

"No traumatic event in his past you'll help him get over?" the girl said, looking disappointed. "Come on, there has to be something. What about just plain abuse?"

"No."

The girl sighed. "Fair enough. Anyway. Did you say he liked you back?"

"I didn't say." Itachi said. "I don't know."

"Ahh." the girl sighed. "You're impossible. You should just ask him."

Itachi, who had designed seven plans of seducing Naruto, an average of roughly nineteen point six variations of each of them, and countless combinations of the plans besides, had not thought of that. "Hn."

"Send him chocolates." the girl suggested. "Or flowers. Or give him something he likes. Or just kiss him."

The last one sounded appealing, but Itachi knew he wouldn't dare. Or would he? It would be easy enough...

Something he liked? Itachi tried to think of foodstuff, but came up with pocky in his mind. Not that one, he thought... Naruto didn't like sweets that much, and as for presents... weapons? A wakizashi, maybe.

He stood up. "Thank you for the advice." he said, and walked out of the tent.

The girl stared thoughtfully at his retreating back. "Aw, it's a shame." she said, sighing. "I'd quite like to stalk him and spy on how it goes. Oh- hot damn! Madam." Hastily she put her turban back on for her next customer. "Goodness, let me see your palm, the aura you have around you is staggeringly promising..."

* * *

The hawk trailed across the sky, its wings spread to catch the sunlight. There was a wooden device on its back, a very light object strapped to the avian by the means of slender twine. There was a scroll attached to the device- not a very large one. The hawk flew swiftly.

Its wings dipped once in the air. It tilted- and soared down towards the ground, arcing gently, its beak clicking.

* * *

"Beagle," Wolf announced. "Fox. Fox, Beagle."

Genma didn't look well. Naruto couldn't see past his mask, but through the round holes in it, Naruto could see pale skin, a fraction of dark circles under his too-wide eyes.

ANBU had really done a number on him.

"Pleased to meet you." Naruto said, holding out a hand. meeting Genma's eyes squarely. Recognition registered in the little he could see of Genma's face.

"Likewise." Genma's grip came alive in his hand, and Naruto knew something had flooded back into his somewhat-friend. Goodness, Naruto wondered, was it the team that had him down so badly? He was not looking forward to this mission.

Naruto was aware of Wolf's apathetic gaze, and turned his head towards his captain. "So." he said, in rather forced cheer. "Mission?"

"Low A-rank." Wolf said. "Red Owl's off on solo, so it's me, you, Beagle, Cobra, and Leopard. Take a look at the mission file..."

Beagle stepped close to Naruto as he started reading. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you." he said in a hoarse voice. "I'd resign, but Hokage-sama ordered me to stay on. Did he tell you to stabilize this squad?"

Naruto wondered how much to tell him. "I... yes. I read most of their files..."

"Mine?" Genma inquired quietly.

"Yes." Naruto said, admitting it freely. "I read about Cricket."

"I see." Genma said, half-growl. "And then you'll know what Wolf is, a fucking heartless-"

"Shush." Naruto murmured. "Tell you what- after the mission, we'll go for a drink. You can tell me then."

"Fine with me." Beagle said. "But, you're paying." he added, with much more energy.

Naruto suppressed a smile. "Fine." he said.

The door thumped open, and Cobra walked in, his mask snarling at the room at large. Red Owl came in behind her.

"We're set to leave in a few minutes. Leopard will brief you on the way there." Wolf said tonelessly.

Naruto continued to look at the mission file. It would be a very short one. Daimyo wanted his top adviser killed, and wanted it to be done in a fashion that would let everyone in the know who had done it and what would happen to people who messed with him again. Politics.

And there would be the standard bodyguards, some of them ninja...

_Fight_, said the voice, sounding excited. _Like last time. Smear their corpses on the wall._

Naruto tuned Kyuubi out. It was easy enough when you got the hang of it.

The belated feeling caught up with Naruto on the way to Tangaku Gai, where the Daimyo was now, that he was going to be doing this for quite a while. Squad 15 was an assassination specializing squad- Naruto had read it in his mission file, but hadn't thought much of it at the time. He'd done assassination before, it wasn't too bad. You just had to make it impersonal. There's a throat, it needs slitting. Or this little bag of powder needs to find itself lodged into a certain stomach in a few hours. Something like that.

The Daimyo's top adviser... whew...

"This is a nukenin mission." Leopard said from somewhere in front of them. "You all know the procedure. Beagle, enlighten the rookie."

"In case we get caught," Genma's voice said from his right, the wind whipping his words away. Naruto slowed down fractionally and moved to the right, so that he was positioned right behind him. He could hear him well as Genma continued. "We're officially nukenin if we fail, and then we'll be put in one of the spy teams like Squad 4 or 5, but that's unlikely. We're using fake hitai-ate, from the moment we get out of Konoha..."

* * *

They sat in a hotel room, dressed in casual clothing, except Leopard, who was in a dark suit, and Wolf, who was still in ANBU garb.

Cobra was in strapless green gown, and was looking murderous about it. Genma was wearing a white shirt and dark blue trousers, Naruto tan shorts and a black vest. They were still wearing their masks save Naruto, who had taken it off to eat grapes, which he mechanically popped into his mouth every five seconds.

"We're going undercover." Leopard explained. "Rookie's gonna do the actually killing. Target is guarded at all times by at least four ninja at a time. He's hired several nukenin, which contributes to the already lengthy list of reasons why the Daimyo wants him disposed of..."

Naruto politely waited until Leopard was finished with his explanation to protest. "That's news to me. Why am I doing the assassination?"

"'Cos captain here thinks you're good enough to carry it out, and he wants to test you." Leopard said.

Naruto stared at Wolf. And blinked. Shrugged.

"All right." he said calmly, looking at Leopard again. "So, plan specifics?..."

"Work it out as we go."

* * *

Naruto closed his eyes, his mind keeping track of all the people in front of him and the routes they had been tracing when he'd stopped looking. After five seconds, he opened them again, and nodded.

"Stop playing around," Cobra growled, overgrown fringe covering the bulging veins that fringed her Byakugan, hidden behind shades. Naruto turned his head to look at her, a friendly grin on his face. Cobra's mouth twisted unpleasantly, a low snarl rumbling in her throat as several men stopped to eye her. They hastily backed away, and Naruto laughed quietly, throwing an arm around her. "Relax." he drawled, scanning the area for anyone with shinobi-level chakra reserves- or just plain 'dead' spaces in the air, which shinobi left when they weren't muffling their chakra signatures correctly.

"I'm going to kill you when we get back." Cobra muttered. She was pink.

"How many shinobi do you sense?" Naruto said into her ear, grinning hugely.

(Fucking bastard, Cobra thought. But damn if he isn't a good actor...)

"At least twenty, but I think most of them are the Daimyo's guard." Cobra muttered back. "The ones I don't sense worry me more, though..."

Naruto sighed, closed his eyes, waited, and opened.

Eight people were moving unpredictably.

People don't move in straight lines or predictable curves, but they don't randomly change their courses in a short space of time. Shinobi, good ones, made subtle movements as to become unpredictable in a fight. Sometimes, it became a habit...

"Brunette in green kimono, the bald guy with the snake tattoo on his throat, and the one all in white, are the ones you didn't spot." Naruto said. "Of course, I could be wrong..."

His tone of voice made it quite clear that he knew he wasn't.

Cobra bristled. "I don't sense anything about them."

"Watch their movements..."

Silence.

"Hmm."

* * *

Beagle tapped him on the shoulder. "'scuse me," he said. "Props are done, show's all yours now."

"Thanks." Naruto said, humorlessly. "How long can I take?"

"Hm... audience won't wait for more than four minutes, I'd say... You'll need to hurry."

"I'll make sure to be out fast." Naruto said.

* * *

Blood spread on the pavement, seeped into the cobblestones...

A figure watched from the top of the Ferris wheel, the cage reaching its zenith... and stopping, as the operator below halted the wheel in a panic. People were already converging onto the scene, like vultures.

Naruto sighed and leaned back. Mission accomplished. And he supposed that he knew what was wrong with the team now more intimately.

* * *

Itachi was on the rooftop of an inn when he saw the hawk, dark speck in the sky becoming a blot and then something with shape. His eyes blinked, black pupils tracking the slow sweep of dark wings against dawn sky and the insignia dyed into its chest. Konoha...

Itachi held out a wrist when it came to the distance where he could pick out the glimmering streetlights in its eyes. Claws gently pricked the surface of his skin as it bent forward. Itachi removed the small scroll attached to its back. It fluttered away to somewhere behind him- it was trained to stay for around an hour to see if he would give a response and then fly away if he didn't. Itachi opened the scroll, an unbidden smile lighting up his face when he recognized the handwriting.

He didn't drop the scroll when his eyes flickered through the kanji, but his knuckles paled as he clutched the wooden rollers. His lips parted slightly, shock, disbelief... hope, all warring for control inside him...

"Naruto-kun..." he said aloud, taking off his shades and reading through the scroll again, much more carefully. "You have..."

He grew silent. Itachi knew that the Hokage had probably allowed Naruto to ask him only because he knew that Itachi would refuse. And Itachi would. Would have.

Would have, but...

Things had changed.

The Hokage didn't want him in Konoha.

Naruto did.

Konoha was dangerous for him to go back to.

If people found out...

It was not dangerous only for him.

Naruto wanted him back.

_Naruto._

The next Hokage.

It was a rash decision...

Thoughts chased across his mind, very fast. Over and over again. Itachi hadn't been this severely shocked for... a decade, perhaps...

Naruto wanted him back.

It was agonizing.

And there was Sasuke.

And Madara, whom Itachi suspected wasn't dead. The way Sasuke had disappeared, just like that...

But what good could he do? Madara was...

Madara, who held power over the Kyuubi...

Naruto.

The Hokage's choice...

Konoha of painful memories...

And it kept winding back to Naruto, like a broken tape...

He shouldn't go back.

He was sick of wandering.

It wasn't safe.

The Hokage didn't _really_ want him back.

_But Naruto did._

That mattered? Naruto was a _child_. He was still ruled by his emotions.

Itachi wasn't.

He had to make the right choice.

It was a simple one. No. Every rational bone in his body said-

Itachi took a deep breath. This wasn't helping matters, he said sternly to himself. You've always done what was right before. Girls didn't tempt you- (Naruto does)- money didn't intrigue you- (Naruto does)- you were never interested in power- you've always been sensible about things. You've always known when to set aside things that you wanted but wouldn't do you any good in the long run-

But he wanted this, more than anything else in the world. It was the strongest emotion he'd felt in a long time, temptation...

He was sick of wandering.

He was sick of being an exile.

He wanted to go back.

Itachi was, rather, afraid of what he would do if he did...

And he realized that he'd already made his decision.

God help him.

He beckoned to the messenger hawk.

* * *

There really was no helping it. When he became Hokage, he would have to disband Squad 15. It was _hopeless_.

Cobra wasn't that bad, really, Naruto couldn't help but think. She didn't erupt at every single thing she disagreed with, like he'd secretly thought she'd do at first. (He was ashamed of thinking that, actually. It was irrational, no shinobi would do that.) But she still... when she moved, he could tell. There was too much bottled up inside her...

Wolf's leadership was wavering, too.

A lot of subtle problems. The team was good together individually, maybe- and they _did_ work together- not well, but they worked, anyway. They... worked like a broken machine that worked, but in a twisted way.

'Broken machine'. It described them well...

Naruto took a notepad from his pocket and spend a few moments scribbling down something. He sat back and looked at the picture.

God help me, they're all in pieces. Naruto thought, staring at the piece of paper on which he'd drawn five jagged puzzle pieces that obviously didn't fit together. That was Squad 15. They don't fit together. They're the problems, the leftovers, just like Kyuubi said...

He sighed, and went to get a drink with Beagle. He'd promised, after all.

* * *

Hehe. And here's a piece of blatant self-advertisement, a preview of my new story (Longish oneshot, it's complete) 'To Rise and Return'. Lots of bashing, actually. AU of the Shinobi Continent, Hokage is the Lord of Fire Country and Konoha is one shinobi 'village' (city) in many. NaruHina.

_"Why have you returned?" Sasuke roared, mad with rage. "To kill me? For something like that? So petty, dobe! You'll always be the same! I remember you when you were young, the idiot, the class clown, always boasting about becoming Hokage, something or another! And now, you're still nothing! Maybe you've learned a few tricks, but you're nothing more than a bandit, not clever enough to use your skills for more than survival. And I-"_

_Sasuke calmed down again. He smirked. "And I..."_

_"Nothing but a shutaru." Naruto said, waving a hand dismissively. "Sasuke, Sasuke... you're still the same, you know. Always trapped in yourself. I'd almost feel sorry for you. Can you get me some tea?"_


	6. Shilmari

AN: My midterm exams are coming up. (Mourns) I mean, how the _hell_ does this happen? It seems to be far off, like, when you start vacation, it _is_far off, but when the hols are over, suddenly the exams are looming and the teachers keep hinting mysteriously at this and that is coming up in the exams- and you're like, 'Ahh, why are they saying this now? We're just starting, it's the phase when we pass notes and giggle in classes- they should tell us when we're in the mood to take notes and memorize all this shit.'- and you're still in that festive, 'Hey, how've you been over the hols, man? Wanna hang out today' mood when suddenly- _bam_, the exams are only two or three weeks away.

Anyway, due to the inverse laws of writing fanfiction, expect updates to be faster now that I'm so busy. Odd, that. (Muses)... Actually, just kidding. I have no idea how frequently I'll update.

I'm rambling. :)

As usual, this chapter sucks.

Chapter VI

* * *

_Two weeks ago-_

The woman escaped the hospital with the assured stride of one who knew that if anyone was stupid enough to pursue them, she was strong enough to take them out. It was a walk that came automatically to her- if it weren't for years of habit and inured confidence, she would have been staggering.

She carried out the man like he weighed nothing. Her mind whirled with grief and denial and anger and fear, all at once. It did not show on her face, but her hands did tighten on her once-friend, once-leader, now-

(Not corpse! Not _dead_, not-)

Now incapacitated commander's body.

As soon as she was out of anyone's sight, she broke down, collapsing onto the ground. Her azure hair was in disarray, and she wrapped her arms around-

(Not corpse! Not dead, never, _ever, **ever**_-)

_-Him_, and buried her face into his painfully thin chest, her screams muffled by the cloth.

Her sobs died away a few minutes later, but she still sat on the ground, her eyes dull and unseeing, and stayed that way for hours...

It started to rain at some point.

She startled at the first few drops, and as the drizzle intensified into a squall, her eyes started to burn in her gaunt, shadowed face.

Rain...

God's tears...

_Ame_.

She was going back.

And then she whispered her oath into her leader's ear, and stood up slowly. The rain slicked down her hair and slid down her face- it was impossible to tell if she was crying.

Her teeth were bared into a fierce snarl, and for a brief moment she looked more animal than woman. Her strides were jerky but unhesitating as she slung the orange-haired man's-

(Not corpse... Not... dead... _never_)

-_Body_ over her shoulder, and started her trek back to Rain Country.

* * *

"She was the prettiest girl in the world, and she was really kind." Genma said. He'd already drunken a _lot_of sake, but he was one of those people whose speech wasn't affected too much by his drinking. Very rare. The most he'd done was make a few grammatical mistakes. "Her eyes was the-" (Hiccup) "-nicest shade of turqoise you'd find in Fire Country."

It was the eleventh time Genma had mentioned her eyes. Yanagi Eda was the most perfect girl in the world, with blue-green eyes, auburn hair, and a beautiful smile. And dimples, mustn't forget the dimples. For all the sympathy Naruto had for Genma, one couldn't help but get a bit tired of two hours of description. Repetitive description.

"Wolf." Genma hissed darkly. He was beginning to slur at last. It was impressive, how long he'd held out. "That _heartless_ bastard. I know all about him, you know. I wars a chuunin when I heard about it, the time he got that Shraringan from his Uchiha tearmmate. He went back to shave a girl and the Uchiha died. That furcking hypocrite. He didn't do that for Eda. He'll never do it for anyone he doeshn't like. He's fucking Mirster Rational now, it's for the good of the mission, we can't risk it, blar, blar, blar..."

Genma started to cry. Naruto patted him on the back. He was willing to bet Genma hadn't cried for quite a long time, now. There was something about the desperate quality of his sobs. He scratched a few seals on his napkin and spat on it. The outside noise became a blur of something like soft static. It was a useful trick, one of the first seals that Jiraiya had ever taught him. "Goddamn bashtard, that Hatake..."

"It won't be all right for a long time, Genma." Naruto said, passing him more sake, thinking that being frank wouldn't hurt Genma's feelings, with all the alcohol in his system and all. "You'll keep missing her..."

Genma looked up, eyes red rimmed. His senbon was bent in his mouth. Naruto took it out- Genma didn't notice. "Tharnks, Namikaze." Genma slurred. "You know, when I went to 'er funeral, everyorne was shaying that I'd forget. They torld me that I'd feel better when time pashed. So I waited. And I don't feel better."

He hiccuped. Naruto passed him a napkin to blow his nose on, but Genma just wiped his eyes. There was something wrong with his expression, somehow. Naruto laid a finger on Genma's forehead- he didn't notice. Genma was feverish. Not too much, but he was definitely too warm.

"You've been drinking too much, Genma." Naruto said gently, hand straying to the back of Genma's neck.

"I know." Genma said, with a glazed look on his face. Naruto's thumb pressed down, firmly... "You know what? I think..."

Naruto's other hand caught Genma's forehead as he fell unconscious. He rather regretted promising to pay for the drinks as he hauled Genma out of the bar, bereft of a large portion of his money. He navigated the village, vaguely remembering Genma's address from the file.

He found the house key in Genma's pocket. He placed his friend on the bed, which was in disarray. His room was messy, an empty sake bottle lay on its side on the floor.

He was in a bad way, Naruto felt. Losing a lover was nothing uncommon, especially if your partner was a shinobi. But still... it was always painful.

Not that he would know.

His eyes lingered on Genma's prone figure. And remembered something that he'd said... Near the beginning, when Genma had been on his second bottle. He'd said something about waking up and feeling desperately alone...

Huh.

Naruto went outside, with a feeling that what he was about to do would either help Genma a lot, or just make him really mad.

* * *

It was around nine in the morning when someone pounded on his apartment door. Naruto got a clone to see who it was, although he thought he knew.

"Naruto." The voice was rather tense. Genma stood behind him, with a strained expression on his face. "You bought me..."

"Jiraiya-sensei is allergic to dogs." Naruto said, smiling. "And it's pretty cute, wasn't it? I was on my way home when I saw it."

Genma's voice cracked a bit. "But I don't even know how to take care of it!" his voice said, pitched high. "It _pissed_ on my bed!"

Naruto couldn't help it. He tried to mask it with coughs, but from Genma's narrowed eyes it wasn't fooling him. Naruto stifled his chuckles and somberly pointed down the street. "There's a bookstore down there somewhere. There are a lot of books instructing you on how to raise a pet..."

"But I don't _want_it!" Genma said plaintively. "Take it back!"

"How do you like it?" Naruto said, trying not to smile. "Apart from the urinating thing, of course."

"It's... furry." Genma said uncertainly. "Um. And its feet were dirty." he said.

"Doesn't it have the sweetest eyes?" They were golden. The dog was reddish in color, with a stub for a tail it kept trying to wag. Naruto prefered felines, to tell the truth, but... "I wish you'd keep it, Genma..."

Genma's face was a mask of uncertainty as he opened his mouth to say something...

Naruto coughed tactfully. "You know." he said in a polite tone. "It's been with you for nearly a day, I don't think it's going to stop with just _urinating_ on your bed..."

Genma's eyes bulged. "WHAT!"

So, Naruto thought, a few minutes after Genma had left. I'll bet anything Hokage-sama won't let me disband Squad 15. I still haven't figured out why, but I guess the old man has his reasons. It's still in the process of falling apart. It's been doing that for a long time, I gather. So what I'll do is make sure everything goes smoothly in the team. It won't be hard, I'm good with people. Or so they tell me...

He had a feeling that he should be getting to know his teammates...

He felt daunted. Leopard had already expressed disinterest in friendship. Cobra was, Naruto thought, approachable. It was just that no one bothered to make an effort to get near _her_. More than that, he supposed, but still. She wasn't impossible. Beagle he could help- well, maybe. The dog might help. He had no idea yet. Red Owl was fine, she was the best out of the lot. And Hatake was... how the hell was he supposed to help him if the man flinched whenever he looked into Naruto's eyes? Not that bad, of course, but Naruto could tell he felt uncomfortable around him.

..._Henge_? A voice said to him, sarcastically. It's not hard. Are you a fool?

Shut up. Naruto said, and tuned it out. Henge. That was an idea.

Why not? He had to start sometime, and he'd been in the ANBU for weeks, now. The Hokage had given a mission, and Naruto wasn't a procrastinator.

He wished he was.

It was around noon when he found himself looking at the bronze knocker of Hatake Kakashi's door, and wondering why he hadn't taken a longer route to the place...

Duty, he reminded himself. He wouldn't be doing a very good job of him if he convinced himself to take a walk around Konoha before going somewhere he needed to...

He was about to blank out his panic, but thought of something. This wasn't an extremely stressing situation-

(Oh yeah?)

-so there was no reason to use that sort of technique. He was just going to knock-

(And run away?)

-and as Hatake Kakashi if he wanted to go out for dinner or something. Get to know each other. Teamwork and all. Ask him about the team. Depart on friendlier terms, hopefully...

And why was he nervous, anyway?

He knew he would let himself drift off in front of the door if he let himself think too much. He knocked before he started to wonder...

Because this was a mission? And he didn't want to break his near-perfect record?

Because Hatake had been his father's student? He counted that out.

Because he didn't know him? It made a bit of sense, because Naruto, while getting along with strangers, often felt rather awkward around them when he was in the process of actually _meeting_ them. Many people he'd met had unpleasant surprises-

The door swung open. Naruto blinked.

Hatake Kakashi slouched in front of him, carrying a familiar looking orange book...

Hatake didn't look at him, and stared at the book instead. "Aah." he said as a greeting, one eye still scanning the pages. "Why are you here?"

And then he giggled. He was still looking at his book

Naruto very slowly raised his hand, and touched the worn spine. And rubbed the edge with his thumb.

The book burst into flames.

The shadow clone dissipated.

"Saa, that was rude of you." came the drawl, and a Hatake Kakashi stepped out of the shadows. His aparmtment wasn't lit at all. "I am fond of that book."

He was reading the same one. Naruto took a deep breath. If one looked closely, one could see spots of pink on his face... anger or embarrassment. Perhaps both.

"Hatake-san." he said, after thinking about fury, irritation, embarrassment, and then just settling for a flat tone. "I want to invite you out for dinner."

Hatake Kakashi blinked, and stared up somewhere at the ceiling. Naruto kept his eyes steadily on a spot somewhere above Hatake's left shoulder.

"Did someone put you up to this?" Hatake said at last, sounding slightly awkward.

"I have pure intentions." Naruto said solemnly.

"No one has pure intentions." Hatake retaliated, and tried to shut the door. Naruto, on pure reflex, stopped the door with his foot. And wished he hadn't. That had been an absolutely _perfect_ chance to get away...

"I'd like to talk about the team dynamics, Hatake-san." Naruto said, enunciating clearly, glaring straight at him. Hatake went still.

Naruto smiled, in the 'I-just-_knew_-you-would-cooperate' way and dragged Hatake Kakashi out of his house- _politely_.

Halfway down the stairs he used a henge to change his appearance into something very different.

Brown eyes, flame-red hair with green and blue streaks in it. Same chin, though.

"Aha." Kakashi droned, walking with him. He sounded nonchalant, but Naruto noticed tension in his posture. "You listened in your Academy lessons, I see."

"Yes." Naruto smiled. "Although it's quite unnecessary, I know, with a good henge."

If one part of his body was extremely eye-catching, people would remember that part and not the rest of him...

Naruto noticed that Kakashi had relaxed marginally. So his appearance did bother him a lot... he'd have to remember that.

"Where would you like to go?" Naruto said cheerfully, ignoring the glares aimed at his hair.

"You dragged me out, you tell me." Kakashi sighed, pulling out an orange book from somewhere on his being. Naruto looked at Kakashi. And smiled- pointedly. He snapped- a small blue-white flame burned a few inches from his palm.

Kakashi eyed it- and put the book away.

"Nice trick." he said loftily, pretending nothing had happened.

"Actually, it's a genjutsu." Naruto said, dispelling it.

"I was talking about that."

Naruto shrugged. "'Ramen or seafood?" he said, stopping in the middle of the street. Ichiraku's stood to the right of him, the seafood place Naruto frequented a little ahead to the left.

"Ramen..."

Naruto drew out a stool for Kakashi with his foot in the act of sitting. "Miso's good." he commented, throwing down a few shuriken onto the ground that were engraved with odd, spiraling symbols.

Kakashi looked at him, and his visible eye crinkled. "A pork ramen, please." he said to Ayame, who nodded and looked expectantly at Naruto.

"Shrimp." Naruto said after a few seconds of thought. "Make that one shrimp and one miso." he added. "Large."

"You have an appetite." Kakashi said dryly when Ayame went back into the kitchen to relay the orders to her father.

"I always have room in my stomach for ramen." Naruto agreed, smiling at him.

Kakashi looked at the table for a moment, and shrugged. "So. You wanted to talk about the team?"

"Well, yes." Naruto said, giving a small frown. Naive, he thought. Can I fool him? How far can I go before he starts thinking that I can't be that stupid? How much _does_ he know about me, anyway? "Um, you do know that I was sent in as a buffer, right?"

And he sat there, radiating stifled embarrassment, giving out muffled body signals that said that Naruto couldn't believe that he'd just asked, in a roundabout way, Kakashi to help him fix up the team.

Naruto couldn't tell if Kakashi had bought it. He shrugged, feigning subtle embarrassment. "I wasn't planning on asking you for advice..." he said, trying a small chuckle, "But the team... it seems _impossible_."

Kakashi was silent. Naruto stared at him sideways, his pupils expanding for a few seconds. The shadows faded away, the colors rippled. He could see Kakashi's face beneath the cloth mask, the tightness of his lips. Of course, he'd gotten in the habit of not hiding his expression- he had a mask for it, after all. Rather stupid of him.

Kakashi turned to look at him again, and his mouth spread into an innocent smile beneath the mask- but his jaw was clenched. "Are you all right?" he was saying...

Chakra sizzled through synapses, Naruto's eyes returned to normal. They were streaming; Naruto dabbed them with his sleeves.

"Sorry." he said blandly. "I think some dust got into my eyes."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow arched. "Oh?" he deadpanned, and looked away again.

This was getting nowhere, Naruto thought, and was about to ask him about the squad again when Kakashi said in a steady voice, "It'll be all right."

Naruto raised his eyebrows. I didn't take him for a fool, Naruto thought. Oh, but of course he's not. What's he up to, then? "Why do you think so?" Naruto said edgily.

"Because at the end of this year, I'm going to request the squad be disbanded." Hatake said. "Beagle's term will be up by then, he can advance to elite jounin. Cobra needs until November to finish her contract with the ANBU."

Naruto sat thoughtfully, listening to pots and utensils being clanked around behind the wall a few feet away from their seats. He was wondering if Kakashi was testing him- or if he didn't know that Naruto was good enough to tell if he was lying, his motives for trying to fool him.

He settled for a neutral "Are you?".

Kakashi cocked his head, and smiled, the false humor quite visible even with the mask. "Hmmm..."

Naruto smiled, too, rather coldly. "Please, don't be a bastard, taichou. I was sent to patch up the team, I just want tips. Geez."

Kakashi stared at him.

The ramen arrived.

Smiling pleasantly, Naruto murmured thanks before snapping his chopsticks into two. Kakashi went through the process, much more slowly- and when Naruto looked up after two or three bites, the man was pulling up his mask, only a few droplets of soup swimming at the bottom of the bowl.

"That _will_give you indigestion." Naruto said sternly. "Why don't you just..." Naruto trailed off thoughtfully. "_Kai_."

The illusion wavered, but Hatake Kakashi had already covered his face, an almost full ramen bown in front of him.

Naruto had to laugh. "You use A-class genjutsu to- _pfft_-"

Kakashi had the grace to look ashamed of himself.

And, Naruto noted, as he wiped away his streaming eyes, he was smiling, too.

* * *

The sunlight splayed over the walls, casting odd shadows on the stone. It was just the right temperature- Hagane Kotetsu, looking around furtively, made a few hand seals. Stone sprouted out of the earth. Kotetsu brushed some dirt off it and sat down, sighing. "My feet ache." he complained. "Shit, guard duty _sucks_. Raidou never told me it sucked this much."

"If he had, you wouldn't have done it." Izumo said dourly. "Make me a chair, too."

"'s not a chair." Kotetsu said. "A real chair would have armrests and something to lean on. And it should be soft. Man, I miss my dad's old green couch. Really hideous looking, but comfortable as hell."

He thought for a moment. "Heaven." he amended.

_"Make me one."_

"Tsk." Kotetsu snorted, and complied. Izumo sat down on the other side of the gate.

"At least our shift ends in a few days..." he said, trying to sound optimistic and failing grandly. "I mean, then we can push it off to one of the new chuunin. That Akimichi, he looks like one who wouldn't mind sitting around all day and stamping passes-"

"Someone's coming!" Kotetsu interrupted, up like a shot. He postured a bit.

"Kotetsu..." Izumo said testily, standing up as well, much more slowly. "You don't have to look that stiff for a random civilian..."

"Hey, Raidou told me horror stories about the time he was sitting down when one of those Council pimps came through." Kotetsu said. "Geez, the old man shouted at him for an hour..." He cleared his throat, realizing that the stranger was near enough to hear them. "Who goes there?"

The man was wearing shades. He had pale skin and black hair, and was wearing nondescript civilian clothes in varying shades of gray.

"Do you have a pass?" Izumo started to say, but suddenly blinked. The man smoothly walked past him. Izumo turned around, opening his mouth to protest-

And he found himself paralyzed. He vaguely registered that Kotetsu wasn't moving, either.

The stranger's hand flashed up- (_That's no civilian!_-) to touch the Leaf symbol that hid the very complicated lock behind it, designed by a fuinjutsu master. Izumo thought,that's that, then, no one can get through _that_-

The symbol split into two and slid aside. The twisted pieces of metal that could only be identified as a lock if you knew it was beforehand glowed red-hot suddenly as the man touched them. The seals engraved on them, usually shimmering with whitish light, went darker than black.

Izumo's eyes bulged. That's _impossible_, he thought. He'd have to be...

(Really really powerful to do that-)

He couldn't even scream. A strangled sort of groan issued from the back of his throat when he tried. His hand refused to move towards his pocket, which held a device that would, if activated, would alert an ANBU team to rain down holy hell, or Ibiki, onto the intruder-

The gates didn't move, and Izumo dared to hope-

But with a creak, they very reluctantly opened. The man glided through swiftly, before the gates stopped in their progress and slammed shut again.

(_But that means he didn't crack the code, he was keeping it open with sheer-_ force-)

Izumo's face didn't betray his terror, it was still wearing the expression of vague befuddlement. On the other side of the gates, the stranger paused and turned around, pulling down his shades-

_Redblackterror_- _uchiha!_- **forget**

The two guards were still. The sun cast their long shadows against the wall and gates. The man in gray walked away, putting his sunglasses back on.

A few minutes passed.

And then- movement.

Izumo blinked, and stared at the gate. He could have _sworn_ it had been opened for a few seconds.

Kotetsu was sitting down, blinking in a befuddled way. "Huh." he said, clearing his throat a bit.

The sun had set. There was only a vaguely reddish glow framing the mountains, black in the distance... But he'd never _seen_ it set...

"Boring day, eh?" Kotetsu said, idly picking up a rock and throwing it towards a tree. It hit the very center and bounced off. "Man, my legs hurt."

Izumo nodded, sitting down next to his friend.

"You know, my dad used to have this chair." Kotetsu said. "It was real ugly. Had puke-colored patterns in murky green. Comfortable as hell, though."

He paused. "Heaven." he corrected.

Izumo frowned. Something felt... wrong...

He stared at the gate again. It was firmly bolted.

"I reckon our shift's nearly over, eh?" Kotetsu said, grinning at him. "No one will notice if we nip away for a bowl of udon or something."

"Yeah." Izumo said, after a pause. "Udon."

He stood up. "Let's go..."

* * *

Uchiha Itachi arrived faster than the messenger hawk.

There were very swift hawks, bred for the purpose of extremely urgent or important messages, trained from birth to obey the most garbled of commands, evade clever pursuit, fly swifter than the wind...

The hawk that had given Itachi the message was not one of them.

As it were, that particular bird was flying leisurely towards Konoha, the scroll-clamping device strapped securely to its back. It would arrive a day after Itachi did, and would be very confused inside its avian mind as the answer was thrown away instead of being taken to the Hokage.

Now, however...

Very few people paid attention to Uchiha Itachi as he strolled through the streets of Konoha's marketplace. Scents pressed at him, sights both familiar and unfamiliar greeted him, the bustle of shopping women and vendors, shopkeepers- always the same everywhere, Konoha, Taki, Suna. There was always a small brat who rushed into the crowd and got knocked down, there were always teenage girls- in pairs, wearing clothes too fine for them to take care of properly- giggling behind their hands, giving coy glances. Always a rude woman with an enormous shopping bag, pushing through the people.

Itachi, clamping down his chakra signature perfectly and feigning a typical civilian walk- with a small limp favoring his left leg, just in case he was _too_nondescript, and walked towards the Hokage's tower.

His eyes darted around behind his shades, searching for a familiar face. He found several- all of them had changed so much.

He caught a glimpse of himself in a random window of a flower shop-

Haven't changed at all, he thought. That's the problem, I'll have to disguise myself.

And then- why did I come back again?

It was hard to forget. Itachi felt rueful as he stepped through into the front door of the Hokage's tower. There were no guards, but he knew that there would always be elite jounin not too far away, here for some business for another...

Itachi walked past them with no great trouble- one of the people inside, a woman with curling black hair and irises the shade of rubies, seemed to be resisting subconsciously at his manipulation of their memories, but she didn't take notice of him in the end.

A memory whispered her name- Yuuhi Kurenai. Genjutsu specialist.

So that would be why.

Itachi climbed the stairs, passing several shinobi who offered him no great mental resistance. It had taken him a long while to master this trick without using the Sharingan, but it was possible. People's minds were ridiculously easy, once you saw them for what they really were.

Except Naruto. Naruto's mind was _different_. It wasn't that he was insane or too smart... he was just...

Itachi couldn't find a word for it, but he could remember the feeling, the resistance he'd met when he'd tried to play around with Naruto's mind. He couldn't steer him. Itachi didn't know why. Perhaps it was just sheer stubbornness. It almost frightened Itachi, who knew all too well the power of will.

He knocked on the door of the Hokage's office. "Weasel." he said in a monotone, just in case someone was listening. "I'm back."

There was a sharp silence from the inside, and then a sigh. "Come in."

* * *

Yeah, Konan's alive. Persistent, isn't she? **죽지 않아. -ㅋㅋ**

_Preview of Chapter 7_

"You'll be wanting to see that bloody loony captain of yours, I imagine."

Naruto nodded, hiding his displeasure at Kakashi being called bloody loony- (although he probably was) - "I couldn't find him anywhere."

"You'll not ever, I should think." the medic said. "And I suggest you shouldn't look for him. This is, what? The fifth, sixth incident? Hokage-sama was too lax, that's what I say. He's probably locked up somewhere." He saw the stricken expression on Naruto's face that he was unable to hide. "Ah, don't worry, kid, they're well treated in those places..."

"Thank you." Naruto murmured, his mind elsewhere, and he strode out of the room, mind whirling.


	7. Retirement

Edit: The chapter mixup has been resolved. Be not afraid of randomness anymore. I will check twice, nay, thrice, before ever updating a story again.

There's going to be a bit of a timeskip in this chapter. Partly because absolutely nothing happens in that time. Six months ago, I would have been trying to fill in the vacuum with random events, and probably would have ended up just creating more loose ends and dragging the story out, but now I just want to get the story get going. I'll be filling up that blackhole with flashbacks and whatnot, so no worries...

(You know, this is going to sound really sappy...) To all who reviewed, thank you. You really made my day.

Excuse the typos.

**Chapter VII**

* * *

Naruto was writing out a report when he heard the door creak open.

Unfamiliar footsteps. Jiraiya walked heavily, although not loudly. He'd already learned how to pick up Beagle's plodding walk, Wolf's sliding steps, Leopard's cautious stroll, Cobra's stalk, and Red Owl's odd rhythm. This was none of them.

Although... Naruto frowned, trying to think of who it was. He wasn't very worried about it being an intruder, but sent out two clones, just in case. The walk wasn't familiar, come to think. There was something about the tread...

There was a hard stamp on the floor. Naruto flinched in shock, the backlash of his sharpened senses hitting him hard.

The door slid open. Through the haze of a kind of pain civilians couldn't experience, the kind that came through senses they didn't have, Naruto registered the fact that the intruder was watching him with a stony dispassion. "I told you time and time again that the technique needed work."

The voice managed to convey acerbic scorn without any particular inflection.

"Sempai." Naruto said reproachfully. He was about to say 'You didn't have to do that', but he thought that Itachi would reply with something like 'Yes, I did,' or 'You learned your lesson, didn't you?'- so he didn't.

Itachi stepped forward, and Naruto got the impression that he was hesitating. He dismissed the thought- Itachi never hesitated. He _waited_. There was a difference.

Naruto stood up, and reached forward to pluck the sunglasses from Itachi's face, not missing Itachi's surprise. "You look too inapproachable, sempai." Naruto said, smiling. "Did the Hokage..."

"He allowed me to stay here." Itachi said, a small smirk on his face. "He cannot go against his word."

Naruto's face split into an ecstatic grin.

"My name is Saigen." Itachi added. "Remember not to slip up in public."

"Saigen." Naruto tried out. "Return? Reappearance? Revival?"

"Tch." Itachi said, sighing. "Is it too obvious?"

Limits, bounds... Naruto frowned, but didn't mention the other way the word could be interpreted. "No." he said, shrugging.

"So." Itachi said coolly, sitting down. Naruto wasn't surprised when he realized that he had activated the privacy seals on Naruto's door. "Tell me what you've been up to these days..."

Naruto, not quite smiling, commenced to do so.

Itachi still showed no reaction by the end of it. "Aah." he droned when Naruto was finished with his explanation. "Good luck, Naruto-kun."

Naruto shrugged. "Where are you staying?" he said, changing track. "Because if you don't have any specific lodgings in mind-" the Uchiha sector was clearly out of question- "You can stay here. Jiraiya stays, mostly, but he's away to Suna for a while, because he hasn't been there for a while and there'll be a fresh generation of females to be research material."

Itachi didn't smile, but Naruto could tell that he was amused. "That would be-" the smallest pause, while Itachi searched for a word- "Nice."

Naruto grinned.

* * *

Scouting in Oto... did not appeal to Naruto.

After Orochimaru had been murdered by Uchiha Sasuke, around a year ago- no, less, a couple of months before he'd been sent to exterminate the Akatsuki, Oto had fallen into disarray. Naruto took it that all the shinobi villages sent regular scouting patrols to the borders between their countries and Oto, and that included Konoha as well. Oto, although chaotic, still held a number of formidable shinobi, over forty percent of them reported as psychologically unstable.

There was a regular team stationed at the Konoha-Oto border, but there were still monthly squads sent to check up on them, and if necessary, act as backup. Each stayed for around a week or two.

Frankly put... it was boring.

Naruto spent most of the trip staring listlessly at space, senses on alert but mind on hiatus. The team who was already there greeted them half-heartedly, and Beagle spent most of his time playing poker with the others. They made little conversation.

They made several forays into Oto territory, but found nothing worth reporting.

On the way back, however, several eventful things happened- but they were all interconnected, so it could just be called one.

* * *

The Konoha hospital reception was in a state of absolute chaos.

Well, it usually was. But still. It was pretty damned dramatic. And in the midst of it, half the lights in the room had gone out, and some of the civilian girls were still screaming.

Naruto sat on one of the seats to the sides, face contorted in a grimace of pain as wavering green chakra seeped into his skin, the flesh knitting torturously. It wasn't that he wanted to refuse treatment, but the medicine wouldn't have worked anyway. Kyuubi didn't want anything in his body, and that meant drugs were out- their effects lasted for minutes at most. Other people's chakra was tolerated, but they'd have less effect.

No one really listened, so Naruto just kept out of the way, using the technique Itachi had taught him to blur other people's perception of him- it wasn't hard, most of them were focusing on other things, anyway.

This, Naruto thought, is bad.

Really bad.

The squad will be disbanded...

And although that was what he'd been rooting for from the start, Naruto had to say that he felt unsure about that decision.

Goodness, I've gotten _attached_ to this team. Naruto thought, a wry smile, tainted by pain, lighting up his face somewhat. His fingers trembled, and his flesh inched, closing the gap little by little.

It would be better if he wasn't distracted by the pain...

No, he didn't have to rely on Kyuubi for this measly-

He gasped aloud as someone jabbed at the wound. "You didn't have to do that." Naruto said, gritting his teeth. A few seconds later, the pain faded, and the skin locked together. Saigen's impassive eyes bored into his, and Naruto stared at him. "You're going to say that I should leave ANBU permanently, or transfer to another squad, aren't you."

Saigen- or Itachi, rather- smiled grimly and sat down. "He's going mad." he stated.

"Aah." Naruto said, shrugging.

"Tell me. How did it happen?"

"Classified information." Naruto said instantly, trying to grin. Itachi wasn't amused. "It happened at the end of the mission, when we were just getting back. I don't know what triggered it, we were just walking through a forest..."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Lots of things in forests." he said. "The oddest things can set people off."

Naruto grimaced. "True."

Itachi leaned back. His skin was tanned a bit- it had been a graceful process. His hands were still pale, though, and he always went around with his shades on. The lenses were colored a sort of dark red-purple, for reasons Naruto had never asked. His hair was dyed brown at the roots. Naruto could see the logic in that. "You should leave ANBU permanently, or transfer to another squad." he announced, echoing Naruto's earlier words for maximum irritation.

Naruto rolled his eyes a bit, rubbing gingerly at his healed arm. "Come on, Saigen, you know I don't want to do that..."

Itachi gave what could be broadly defined as a pout. That is to say, his lower lip shifted a little. "I don't think I see the benefits you do in staying in the Black Ops."

"I've told you." Naruto said.

"Yes, that you felt like it."

Naruto frowned. "I remember quite clearly that I listed several valid reasons and presented a very coherent argument as to why I should remain in the ANBU..."

"I must have forgotten." Itachi deadpanned. "Run through them again, will you?"

Naruto stood up, looking irritable. "Look, Saigen, just give me a few more weeks. Hatake Kakashi might be a lost cause, but I'm pretty sure I can do some good with the rest of the team."

Itachi took off his sunglasses, dark eyes regarding him coolly. The fact that they could barely see at all did not lessen the intensity of the gaze."If they survive, that is."

Naruto's brows gathered, slowly.

Itachi stood up. "Come back safe." he said in his usual monotone, and strolled away.

A very dignified retreat was what it was.

Naruto sighed, and left the reception room to look for his teammates.

* * *

The man walked out of the room, a heavy frown on his face. His hands were calloused and his face was marred by more than a few scars- it was clear from his walk and build that he was a retired shinobi. It was also apparent that he was a medic from the stark white uniform he wore.

He had been no amateur in his days, but he didn't notice the whisper of someone brushing past him, bloodied chuunin vest clinging to his torso by one shoulder. Naruto hadn't noticed yet. Or rather, he had, but he hadn't cared enough to do something about it.

Red Owl lay unconscious, face pale. Naruto had only seen her with her mask off in pictures, and she looked no less dangerous in her sleep. Her face remained stern even in unconsciousness, and Naruto watched her even breathing for a while before soundlessly leaving.

It took a little while to find Cobra. Once he did, he nearly regretted it- not because the sight was gruesome, but because it gave him a helpless feeling. He wasn't a medic. He could just watch. Cobra was worse off than Red Owl, she had caught a high-ranked lightning jutsu to her left flank. The medics were still working on her when Naruto stole into her room, her eyes were wide and unseeing, her being numbed with anesthesia.

Uselessly, Naruto loitered around for a bit, long enough for one of the medics with sharper senses to notice something. He paused and looked at the doorway- Naruto snuck away, a ghost in the corridors as he walked, seeming aimless, until he seemed to regain some sense of direction and started to walk towards a specific destination.

It wasn't hard. Leopard left the heaviest scent of blood.

But he was also the only conscious one, out of all his wounded teammates. He was cursing up a blue streak, and Naruto would have been amused but for his scarlet-stained clothes. "Carve me up with knives, poke at my intestines, _whatever_ you like, but I'm not letting you near me with that needle!"

His eyes were wild, Naruto could tell that he was delirious. That didn't make him any less dangerous.

"Please, sir, we _can't_ operate on you without, it's standardized procedure, and it's going to hurt a lot if we don't-"

"_Not_ letting you near me with that!" Leopard screamed. He was sweating heavily. "Am not going to let you put me to sleep-"

Naruto checked his shoulder, and swung it gingerly. It was healed enough.

He took a taijutsu stance...

One of the medics noticed. Damn, his genjutsu was wavering. "Hey, you're not supposed to be-" he started, but Naruto had already moved. Lunging forward- have to be fast because Leopard was still an A-rank shinobi even if he's half-mad from the pain now- a hand outstretched, Naruto's chakra hit Leopard before Naruto slammed into the wall, softening the impact with perfectly timed bending of the knees. Leopard, to his credit, had blearily moved his hands up in a defensive posture before he slumped, eyes closing.

The medic who had noticed him first walked up to Naruto, who was getting to his feet, and seemed to be about to start on a lecture about barging in when there was a surgery going on. Then he noticed the cracked porcelain mask hanging from the side of Naruto's belt, and his eyes narrowed. "You're Namikaze Naruto." he said crisply. "You're the fourth wounded member, why haven't you been checked in for healing? I was supposed to-"

Naruto shrugged off his ruined vest and rolled up his half-sleeves of his arm, so that the medic could see the healed skin. He looked disapproving. "You did this yourself, young man?"

Naruto shrugged. "Some help from a guy I know."

"Very messy job!" he said, tapping Naruto on the chest. "Next time, when you're hurt, you shouldn't try to heal it yourself unless you've been _approved_ to heal that kind of injury! It'll leave a scar."

It wouldn't, but Naruto just shrugged again. "He'll be all right?" he said, letting a trace of worry creep into his voice, nodding towards Leopard's prone form.

"Don't know for sure." the medic said irritably. "Mad bugger wouldn't let us near him. He looks pretty bad, but from the way he was carrying on- ha! you should have seen his tantrum from the beginning- I can tell none of his internal organs are damaged. A few broken ribs, from the way he moved, but I'm sure you guess that. You're the one who carried him in, weren't you?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Had _he_ been the one who had let the genjutsu waver, or was the medic just extremely good at seeing through them?

"Yes." he allowed, cautiously.

The medic searched his face, recognizing the hesitation. "It was a good genjutsu." he said. "You didn't try to leave an empty spot in space where you were supposed to be, but some people notice when they find that they're _not_ paying attention to places they should have been. A word of advice, young man. Don't make the illusion too generic."

Naruto nodded. "Thank you, sir."

The medic took another look at the operating table. "Kaita, switch places with the rookie on your left. Let _him_ handle it, see how well he does." Turning back to Naruto, he added, "You'll be wanting to see that bloody loony captain of yours, I imagine."

Naruto nodded, hiding his displeasure at Kakashi being called bloody loony- (although he probably was) - "I couldn't find him anywhere."

"You'll not ever, I should think." the medic said. "And I suggest you shouldn't look for him. This is, what? The fifth, sixth incident? Hokage-sama was too lax, that's what I say. He's probably locked up somewhere." He saw the stricken expression on Naruto's face that he was unable to hide. "Ah, don't worry, kid, they're well treated in those places..."

"Thank you." Naruto murmured, his mind elsewhere, and he strode out of the room, mind whirling.

Next course of plan?

Why... _find_ him, of course.

Kakashi had grown on him, rather, and Naruto wasn't so willing to give up on him as he had been when he'd first joined the ANBU.

* * *

Around two months ago, he'd visited several ANBU veterans for more insight into Hatake Kakashi before and directly after the Kyuubi attack.

The second one he visited gave the best information out of all of them, although he did curse a lot. "Fang's brat?" he said, sneering. "Little shithead. Not to say he wasn't a good shinobi, but still... he was fucking loopy. He got better after the fox attack, started actually coming on time and performed his duties perfectly. But, shit, he was still totally weird. He didn't drink, didn't sleep around with girls, didn't even seem to have a _life_ except for that stack of porn of his..."

The man had trailed off, eyes glazing a bit. "What did you need to know again?" he said.

"How he changed after the attack?..." Naruto had prompted, gentle but firm.

"Oh, yeah. Went into a funk, except that it was a good one. Didn't mess about in missions or come late or do any of those fucking idiotic stunts. Still visited that damned Memorial Stone, though, he got even worse than usual. Used to spend hours at a time there- 'course, I don't know about now, but the loon used to practically live there. I heard that his entire team died, had all their names put there..._ Katsuo. Kaoru..."_

And then the man had returned to whatever world he was living in, mumbling names and random words. Naruto had lingered a while, and then had left.

Itachi didn't exactly approve of the Hokage's orders to Naruto. "It seems to me," he said in that voice of his, utterly devoid of emotion except the ones he let leak through on purpose., "That Sandaime-sama has miscalculated. I know of Hatake Kakashi, I served under him briefly before I... left. When I did, I predicted his breakdown, although I admitted that I expected him to fall long before this."

Naruto frowned at him, but uncertainly. "He might recover." he stated, smiling at the waitress who came over to their table to pour them two glasses of water.

"I highly doubt it." Itachi said, the slightest tone of scorn slipping into his usual flat one. "I'm sure you know the statistics of shinobi recovery rate from mental illness that medic Yamanaka Fujita compiled."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Be optimistic, Saigen-sempai." he reprimanded.

Itachi frowned back in response, the slightest shift of his expression conveying his utter disapproval of the word. "Optimistic." he deadpanned, something unreadable showing in his eyes.

"It's just a way of thinking." Naruto said, shrugging. "And it _does_ help, you know."

"I believe in skill. Not ways of thinking."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

Itachi looked hard at him. "I still believe that what you are attempting is folly..." he said, "But I do not believe you would not lose hope without a reason."

Naruto shrugged, not quite daring to tell Itachi why he was still persevering on this seemingly lost cause.

"I might fail, I might not..." Naruto said. "But I'm going to try anyway."

And he raised his face, glaring straight at Itachi, leaning forward a bit. "This isn't one of your calculations, Saigen. Life and people... they aren't _math_. Stop thinking that way. Please."

Itachi pulled down his shades a bit, his bloodline blazing to life as he stared very intently at the younger shinobi-

Who lunged across the table, spilling his water as he pressed both palms against the dark-haired man's eyes. The shades slipped off, clattering on the table. Several people around them stared, but returned their eyes to whatever they'd been looking at when they noticed the forehead protectors that marked them as Leaf shinobi. They were used to crazy ninja.

Itachi calmly peeled off Naruto's hands, but his expression held a thin layer of surprise when Naruto set back, huffing a bit as he swiped at the table with a napkin. "What was that about?" he said.

"You had _it_ on." Naruto said, upset. "You _know_ what it does to your eyes, sempai! I don't want you activating it except unless you're in battle with no chance of winning without it."

Itachi stared at Naruto disapprovingly.

"And don't you tell me that it's your weapon or you know better or any of those excuses." Naruto said.

"Hngh."

Naruto ground his teeth, but Itachi raised both hands slightly and ceded the argument.

"You care too much, Naruto-kun." he said, the memory of Naruto, eyes burning with conviction in what he believed in, _humanity_, and fiercely defending it, engraved in his mind by his bloodline limit. Forever.

Itachi had plenty of unpleasant memories that he could not forget thanks to his Sharingan, but this was one that he wasn't going to mind remembering...

He smiled, quietly, and beckoned to the waitress for a fresh glass of water.

* * *

The medic was wrong, Kakashi hadn't been- (imprisoned was how he thought of it) -sent away. Instead, Naruto found him quite easily, by checking the register.

Laughably easy. Chakra hadn't done it, scent hadn't done it, but all he'd had to do was look at a clipboard.

Room 614. Naruto took the stairs to the sixth floor- or rather, stepped on the banisters, weaving in and out of the railings. It was childish, he knew, but it was fast and better than all that climbing, up and turn and up. He must have looked a bit of a fool if it hadn't been for the genjutsu- he'd tried to modify it to fit the medic's advice- he was no longer the small child he'd been when he'd first learned the trick for getting up the stairs the fun way.

He was solemn as he opened the door, breath held in (unconsciously) and ready to access the red chakra if there was any trouble. Without it, he didn't have a chance with his current skill.

But Kakashi was asleep. There was one simple machine for monitoring his heartbeat and one rather more complicated one for showing his chakra fluctuations- Naruto watched the green lines, up and down all over the place. The source was the chakra disruptor seal that would be drawn on the middle of his abdomen- Naruto could see, a crisscross of smooth ink across pale skin.

His eyes went to Kakashi's face, which someone had covered with a white piece of cloth. Every time he breathed, it fluttered a bit, and Naruto was transfixed for a moment.

The room was dark, except for the light from the two screens, the cloth, and a crisp when envelope on the table besides the bed. The last one caught his interest, but Naruto waited for a few moments to check all the security measures that kept Kakashi in place and unconscious (Not cuffs, good ninja could tear through them with chakra or just pure strength, in Maito Gai's case. Other than the chakra disruptor, which would normally be enough, there were several senbon needles that had been inserted with surgical precision to paralyze major nerve centers.) before approaching.

The envelope bore a Konoha symbol on it, he could see that as he got closer. No name, no address, just the symbol- and on top of it, the Hokage's seal in red. Naruto's heart sank...

His fingers didn't tremble as he silently reached for the envelope. Quickly, he slit it open with a blade and took out the letter, unfolding it deftly and skimming the content.

Baldly, without decoration, it stated the official retirement of one Hatake Kakashi, ninja. It wasn't even handwritten, it was type, and someone with crabby handwriting had filled in the blank for the name with stale black ink. The only real thing about it was the Hokage's signature. Naruto followed the loops with his eyes.

Don't tell me you haven't seen it coming, Naruto thought to himself, and his hands still didn't tremble as he carefully put the letter back into the envelope. He resealed it with a small burst of fire chakra. It's the logical, most efficient thing to do. He's no longer a reliable-

(Weapon)

Shinobi anymore.

Naruto gnawed at his lower lip for a second, stopping when he realized what he was doing it.

_God_, this is going to hurt him so much.

And a flash of anger- are they even going to bother to put him on suicide watch?

No, they probably wouldn't. ('Waste of resources', he could imagine the explanation already.)

I can't let it end like this. One part of Naruto seethed. Sandaime-sama gave me this mission, and I'm not going to fail it. I tried so hard. He was getting better, I _know_ he was. And now-

He ground his teeth, and before he could actually _think_ and stop himself, he snatched up the envelope again and-

_Shnizzle_-

He stared at the scorched paper in his hand

(Uh-oh...)

He realized he was smiling fiercely, (insanely) and tried to mentally berate himself for doing something like that. He couldn't find the heart to.

Letting the ashes drift to the ground, he straightened his hitai-ate and exited the room, heading toward the Hokage Tower.

When he got there, he got several odd looks for his bloodied shirt and ripped vest- he absently shrugged it off and carried it when he noticed- and the fierce, almost glowing look on his face. He marched straight up to the Hokage's office; the man who was about to enter jumped and stepped aside, eyes on the ground. Naruto barely noticed, he stormed into the room with calm footsteps. (It was possible.) The Hokage looked up.

Naruto paused, suddenly aware of how ridiculous his request would sound. All his resolve withered, and he licked his dry lips and cleared his throat. "About Hatake Kakashi..." he said hesitantly.

The Sandaime's eyes were narrowed. "Yes?"

He won't say yes, Naruto thought, his heart sinking. Of course he won't. A sensible Hokage wouldn't ever say yes.

(I'm not ready, am I?)

(I shouldn't ask this.)

"Please." he whispered. (But I wouldn't be me if I didn't ask. I wouldn't be the person I want to be if I didn't ask. I _have_ to ask.) "Please revoke-"

"Close the door."

The tone was authoritative. Naruto moved automatically, and the door clicked shut. When he turned back, he saw disapproval on the old man's brow- faint, but tangible.

No, I won't take it back, Naruto thought. "I'm bringing him back." he said, plowing ahead anyway. "You _asked_ me to."

"Not at this risk." Sarutobi Hiruzen said, his voice cold and quiet. He nodded at Naruto's arm.

"It's all healed." Naruto said, frustration clear in his voice. He pulled up the sleeve to prove his point- the flesh was unmarked beneath the blood. "If it weren't for the rest of my team, I would have been able to knock him out with _its_ power. Just... give me a little more time! I can do it. He was getting better."

The Hokage looked down at an open scroll on his desk, and there was a long silence.

"You can- send him on missions with just me." Naruto said, trying not to sound desperate. "There'll be little risk that way. I was reaching him. I know I was."

He was rambling, and stopped himself when he realized.

Sandaime looked up again, and his expression was deathly old. "Ah, Naruto." he whispered, but the sound was carrying. "You leave me more problems than your father did."

Naruto _didn't_ glare. "Excuse me?" he said, schooling his face into an unreadable mask.

"Saigen, Kakashi, and of course, yourself." Sandaime went on. "It seems that you are not as ready as I thought you were. Of course, seventeen is too young. Not yet matured enough. In terms of power, you are strong enough for the post, but..."

Naruto stood, frozen into place. His heart plummeted.

"Outwardly, you fit every requirement. However-" Sarutobi stood up and placed his hand on his heart, a vaguely pained expression flitting across his face. "-you let your emotions get the better of you, sometimes..."

Was it his imagination, or did his mentor sound... wistful?

"A Kage must have his heart, but he must not make his decisions with it." the Hokage said gently. "Your father made the same mistake."

"Excuse me?" Naruto said, the words coming out an icy whisper. Unconsciously, he stepped closer to the old man, eyes smoldering.

"He did not make the logical decision. I should have died in his place."

Naruto's hand shot out and grasped the old man's shoulder, shaking him a bit. The large hat Sandaime wore fell off, taking its wreath of shadows with it. The balding Kage and the young man stared at each other, both surprised.

Naruto withdrew his hand and decided not to apologize. "What's the matter?" he asked curtly instead.

The Third blinked. "Ah, you read me so well." he said. "I'm sorry for my brief lapse in..." the slightest hesitation- "lucidity, Naruto-kun. I am very tired..."

"_What's_ _the_ _matter_?" Naruto repeated, urgently, his plea about Hatake Kakashi nearly forgotten.

Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at his desk again, and from this vantage point, Naruto could see the stamp at the bottom. His stomach seemed to drop to his toes. He knew the reply.

"Ame has declared war."

* * *

Woot.

Next Chapter- Vimes Diplomacy

Instead of reading from the file- a list of his sins, Naruto had thought drolly- as he had expected, Ikemaru directly addressed him. "You are new at this." he said stiffly. "And I know from your reputation that you do not enjoy diplomacy. You are a ninja, ninja are not, by nature, diplomatic."

He was being patronizing. And Naruto could already see where he was going at, because instead of the indignity one might expect from people whose representative had just been insulted by an enemy, the Konoha elders were radiating satisfaction and smugness. The Hyuuga, in particular...

So, this was another power-play thingy. Sandaime had been testing his skills in the political field, trying to see how he'd react, having the carpet pulled from beneath him.


	8. Vimes Diplomacy

**Hi** guys. Essentials first: **Sorry** for the late chapter, sorry for the rotten chapter.

For those of you looking forward to the politics in this story... uh... I am a 15 year old girl who has lived most of her life wrapped up in Harry Potter, yaoi, art, kicking other people, and sometimes science. I am not interested in war, or power plays, or politics. I am good with A meets B, and then everything going downhill from there. Especially the latter- that just happens by itself.

I was hoping to keep this purely romance- so it wouldn't get complicated- but somewhere in the process I started throwing in mental disorders and war and politics and weird twisty plots when all I had wanted was to create a decent KakaNaru story you could read without flinching- you probably do flinch, anyway, so never mind. Shoo. This is a bad story.

Being away for 6 months has also taken its toll on me- I've forgotten a lot about this story- where the plot was going, what kind of style I was using for it, etc.

Oh, whatever. Enjoy, or something. If you did, you have Stephen King to thank- I was reading a book of his and I was scared witless, so I came to work on ff to get my mind of his latest monsters. This is probably filled with typos and mistakes- but I'm so tired and impatient, and** I want reviews** to cheer me up in the morning. **My final exams have just ended. I need a pick-me-up. **(Agh, don't worry. I'll correct them Sunday or Monday. Or sometime.

**Chapter VIII**

* * *

_Summary so far: Three months after the Akatsuki extermination, Namikaze Naruto, soon-to-be Rokudaime Hokage, enters the ANBU corps with the intention of 'fixing up' ANBU Squad 15- composed of Wolf/Hatake Kakashi (undergoing mental deterioration), Cobra/Hyuuga Chizu (anger issues), Beagle/Shiranui Genma (depression over dead lover), Leopard, and Red Owl. He quickly finds out that it's not going to be as easy as it sounds. Meanwhile, Itachi returns. Ame, presumably under the unseen rule of Konan- who has survived- has declared war._

* * *

Naruto felt sharp anger burning in his gut. "You never told me the situation was getting worse!"

The Hokage held up his hands in an appeasing fashion. "I received no warning either, Naruto. The nobles were squabbling among themselves, the people were too disorganized to muster up a proper war effort... but it seems that something has changed."  
Naruto frowned.

"The nobles suddenly stopped their power struggles and agreed to war. The minority who refused simply disappeared. The people wholeheartedly support it- amazing, considering how- may I use a rude term here?- piss poor their living conditions are. The document they sent me tells us nothing about what has changed."

Sandaime didn't say, however, that he hadn't surmised what had happened at Ame from other things.

"I killed Pein." Naruto said. "I know I did. He's the first one I went for, I _remember_ doing it."

Sandaime remained silent.

Naruto's frown deepened.

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched his student, imagining his thought processes. He'll make a fine Hokage, he thought. But he's not ready. He is too young, and I am too old. Ah, Minato, if only you had let me...

"Konan. It's Konan, isn't it." Naruto said.

"Our contacts in Ame tell us that rumors of 'God's Angel' are circulating." the Hokage said as an affirmative. "She is a less formidable opponent than Pein."

Naruto thought about that. "But..." he said, and stopped uneasily. "Ah."

Sandaime nodded in approval. "Yes."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"But you thought it."

Naruto shrugged.

"You could take them down, all of them." Sandaime said. "But the other countries will not take this display of power kindly. I fear that one of our enemies will use it to accuse Fire Country of annexing Ame territory."

"So we have to wait until they attack." Naruto's frown deepened. "Attack _Konoha_."

Sandaime smiled wearily. "Yes. I am very tempted to appoint you Godaime right now and leave you to deal with this mess- but I am not that heartless." he paused- "I hope to make this war short."

Naruto nodded grimly. "How the fuck did she survive?" he said aloud. Sandaime let the profanity slide. "I blew up the entire place!"

"Sheer dumb luck." Sandaime thought aloud. "That is my guess, but really, I can't say."

"I should ask her." Naruto said musingly. "When we meet... It might reveal a weakness of mine when I'm in that state."

Sandaime laughed, a bit weakly, trying (and failing) to associate the word 'weakness' with the Kyuubi, caged it might have been. "I'm convinced it was luck."

"So am I, but it doesn't hurt to be careful." Naruto said absently- he was thinking about the Ame situation. "Well, do you have any orders for me, Hokage-sama?-"

"I want to negotiate with them."

Naruto considered his options to this. Saying 'Are you frickin' stupid?' was one, as was the paraphrased 'Hokage-sama, have you been taking your pills lately?'- but he discarded these. He settled for a noncommittal hum, his face expressing nothing.

Sandaime saw through it and straight to the heart of his skepticism. "There is always hope." he said grandly. "Ame might be persuaded..."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Behind his placid mask, his mind was racing.

"What do you want me to do?" he said, and realized that it had been a mistake a split second later. Sandaime raised an eyebrow, disapproving shadows etched at the corners of his eyes. "Right, right, sorry. My choices and all. But you're still my boss, you should be giving me orders."

Sandaime raised his other eyebrow. "Yes. Indeed." he seemed to consult piece of parchment, but his eyes did not move. "Tell me, what would you do, in my place? And I assure you that there is a great chance that this question will not be hypothetical."

Naruto scowled. "You're _not_ resigning yet."

The aged Hokage spread his hands, and shrugged. "Your answer?"

It took a bit for him to answer. "I'd... Outwardly, I would try to drag on the negotiation for as long as I could. But I'd be concentrating on breaking Konan's rule. Ame's people follow Konan like a god, so it would be faster to assassinate or incapacitate her than discrediting her. However, it would have to be done in a way so that it would look like Konoha had nothing to do with it."

He paused, thinking some more. "Which would be nearly impossible... So if we sent people out to put her under a genjutsu and make her call the whole thing off, that would work. Or just kill her and masquerade as her, with the same results. Her security will be formidable, however, and Konan herself is no lightweight- so, that too would be difficult. Unless..."

Sandaime had a small smile on his face as he watched Naruto. "Unless....?"

"It was me doing it?" Naruto said, frowning. "_Sir_, in all honesty, it would be very difficult for me to bring Konan down in the way that circumstances would demand. Kyuubi's power is neither subtle nor swift, and without it I can't guarantee success. Not because I am weaker, but because I have to end it in one blow, and I... I'm not very sure I can do that."

Sandaime nodded briskly. "Any more ideas?" he encouraged.

"I can think of plenty of ideas to use in actual war, but very little else I can do to prevent one beforehand." Naruto said after a minute. "You, sir?"

The Hokage shrugged, finally reaching down to retrieve his fallen hat. He didn't put it on again, and just turned it over and over in his hands, looking thoughtful. "Really, I have no say in this." he said. "I have a feeling that it will not be my war, soon."

With one deft flick of his wrist, the hat sailed onto Naruto's own blond mane. Naruto tensed, but didn't move as the large hat settled over his head. It was oddly heavy, and felt a bit loose on his head. Naruto knew without looking that it would have obscured his face into shadow. He hesitated before taking it off again, looking at the Sandaime strangely.

He was smiling. "I just wanted to see how it would look on you, Naruto-kun."

"You're acting very strange today." Naruto commented, and gave the hat back. "I hope this doesn't mean you'll be shoving all the paperwork to me soon, sir. I hope to have you guide me through this crisis, at least."

"Hah, I as well." the Hokage said mirthlessly.

There was a pause. Distant birdsong rang outside the tower. The Sandaime turned, robes swirling, to his desk again. "This war is up to you. I'm just going to advise you."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Are you serious? No, of course you are. Stupid question. Unofficially, or did that hat thing really mean something?"

"Unofficially. I think the Council would panic if you took over so soon." Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled. "Think of this as a... a test. I want to see if you can really handle a crisis."

Hell, Naruto thought. A war. A real war, and he's turning this into a test. Hell.

"Incidentally," the Hokage was saying calmly, absently sorting through a pile of paper on his desk, "The hat looked very nice on you."

* * *

He completely forgot to ask the Sandaime about Hatake Kakashi. He never got the chance to do it either, because he was bundled off to the Konoha-Ame border for the negotiations the very next day. Itachi volunteered to come along, but Sandaime had gently discouraged the idea. He seemed to think that it was cheating. Naruto smiled a bit grimly at the idea that bringing Itachi along in a diplomatic situation would be _helpful_, in any meaning of the word.

"The best attack is swift, silent, and most of all, completely unexpected." Itachi said when Naruto entered the kitchen, ready to leave. "Make the right choice."

Naruto rubbed at his eyes and decided that it was too early in the morning for this crap. "Whatever." he muttered.

Itachi frowned pointedly. "You are wearing _orange_."

Naruto looked down at his shirt. "It's not a mission, Itachi. And black gets boring."

"But you are wearing _orange_."

Itachi's stare was very intent. Naruto twitched with annoyance, pulling up the zipper of his dark brown vest to cover the shirt. "Do you have anything _against_ orange?"

Itachi smiled. It was a very unusual expression on him. "No.

Naruto sighed, and dragged his palm over his eyes. "Ye gods... if I become Hokage I'm leaving everything up to the diplomats."

"Indeed." Itachi said. He laced his fingers. "It rather surprises me that Sarutobi-sama is letting you go off on this mission without training."

"We all get lessons on negotiation-"

"_Actual_ diplomacy."

"I'm not diplomatic?"

"Your thinking is too linear for a diplomat."

"I'm not subtle enough?"

"Ninja subtle and diplomat subtle are different."

Naruto gave a frustrated sigh that turned into a yawn. He shifted the strap of his bag to a more comfortable position on his shoulder, and edged around a chair to get to the door. He could feel Itachi's sharp stare digging in between his shoulderblades.

"That bag is not diplomatic."

Naruto rolled his eyes and stepped out, clutching his faded tangerine-colored bag. "Sempai, you can hardly _see_ it."

"That shade could open a blind man's eyes."

Annoyingly enough, the cluster of Council elders who had been elected to tag along shared the same opinion. They were all old and had stern faces, and Naruto had a feeling that this trip was going to be extremely boring.

"The bag needs to go." Naruto labeled the speaker in his mind as the Withered Old Hag.

"It has sentimental value." Naruto explained politely. "No one's going to see it, anyway. We'll be leaving behind all of our stu- things at the camp."

"That shirt is too ostentatious." This one, Naruto decided with his typical morning charity, was going to be the Ancient Tranny. He had the Hyuuga hair- but instead of looking graceful like Neji's or Hiashi's, it just looked... brittle. Age had turned his gender indistinguishable in his face.

"I'll change."

"Young shinobi these days." Withered Old Hag sniffed.

Naruto looked at the two who hadn't spoken yet. All right, he thought, which one is going to become the Wrinkled Prune?

"No respect for elders at all."

Ah, _that_ one.

* * *

With the elders, the trip was less than swift. It took four whole days to the Ame-Konoha border. It was amazingly fast by civilian standards, but if it had been a shinobi-only journey, traversing half of Fire Country would have taken far less. Naruto bought a black outfit and changed into it just to escape the elders' nagging.

He missed orange. Orange symbolized freedom. Freedom from this stiff, orderly life. The black he was wearing right now, he thought, was like a room with no windows that smelled of Ancient Tranny's flowers-gone-bad hair ointment. Orange was the opposite. It was a wide, wide field in the autumn, just when the leaves were crisp enough to make just the right rustling sounds when the wind shook them. And a homemade bento box, eaten hurriedly on the ground. Or ramen. Yeah, ramen. Miso ramen. Or mendaiko? What kind of ramen was the right shade of orange?

Naruto cut off his wandering thoughts sharply and returned his gaze to the sullen black of his current outfit.

He sighed.

They reached the border right on time, the day before the negotiations. Missing home, ramen, orange, and Itachi, Naruto went to sleep with a vague sense of unease, as if he had forgotten something important.

* * *

Naruto woke up with a not-quite headache.

It was the feeling you got when you'd been stressed and thinking too much with little sleep. There was a sort of weight on your forehead, and you felt warm all over, not feverish, but just... warm. Not overly unpleasant, but it made you want to go back to sleep and forget everything all over again. And dream of better days. In a properly darkened room.

Naruto sighed and crawled out of the tent, shivering as he did so.

Mist pooled in the valleys. The dark green pine trees faded away into the distance. The sky was a mass of gray fog, the air felt heavy. Everything seemed to have been bleached- or darkened, rather- into shades of black, dark green, and gray.

It was cold. It kept him awake, because it was the kind of cold that seared into your bones.

He breathed in, and exhaled- his sigh billowed out. He almost couldn't tell when it dissipated, the mist was that heavy.

"Food." he mumbled, and then reluctantly remembered the specifics of the day's schedule. "_Dammit_."

He would meet with the Ame Council of Nobles after breakfast, because Naruto didn't feel up to handling negotiating with civilian snobs without some food in his stomach. They were on the other side of the thin stream that marked the Konoha-Ame border. Naruto could see their colorless tents from here if he squinted and did some strange things with his eyes to see through the mist, along with their gloomy flags, hanging flaccid from their poles.

He ripped apart his last pack of emergency ramen, heated it with a combination of water and fire jutsu, and ravenously gulped it down in the safety of his tent, where the elders couldn't see his bad 'table' manners. When he sauntered out again, he was in a much better mood.

But not that much better.

He only half-listened to the elders' last minute advice on handling the negotiations and tried to think optimistically. (He failed. He'd been staying around Itachi for far too long- but he tried, anyway.)

_Even if I screw up it wouldn't be all my fault because they want to declare war anyway and no matter how nicely I pass around the sandwiches or drink my tea or tie my obi they still want to kill me kill Konoha fight us dammit Konan-_

He sighed. This was all Itachi's fault.

With effort, he could turn just about everything gone wrong in his life right now to point to Itachi.

A smile tugged at his lips.

Okay, so there was the negotiation. The situation with Ame. Which was because he killed Pein. Or rather, because Konan survived. Yep, that was Itachi's fault, he should have been covering the ones who got away, not cringing behind a hefty boulder to avoid the sizzling, poisonous chakra he had been radiating at the moment. And there was the matter of his ANBU team, which Itachi tried to sabotage every ti-

_Goddamnit_, Kakashi!

...I can't believe that I forgot.

He stared blankly ahead, and realized that they were nearly at the river. Why did he have to go and realize _now?

Block it out. Concentrate. Narrow your focus. Deep breaths, ignore, ignore. Your _duty_. Control. Control.

_This focusing technique is recommended only in times of great stress. Overuse can interfere with the workings of various sections of the brain; most prominently the posterior parietal cortex and the amygdala. Extreme overuse can often damage the mind beyond repair..._

I don't _overuse_it, Naruto told himself, the part of him less given to denial cursing his excellent memory. So I'm _not going to end up like Kakashi, whose problem partially stemmed from this. Hah. So there, Itachi-sempai.

He sighed, and did it anyway.

The technique had started with simple meditation. Monks had developed it. Masters could sharpen their minds to a pinpoint of utter brilliance, concentrate nearly all of their brainpower for a brief time, but they died. Ninja learned it to defend themselves from their own thoughts. Genin learned it as the second leaf exercise. Chuunin learned how to 'block things out'. They were told not to go too far with it. Some did. They died or went mad. But the ones who went too far and still stayed the same- a polished human blade of concentration and ruthlessness... they were priceless shinobi. Devoted and unbreakable.

Of course, until they broke.

This was a depression subject to think about when he was trying to distract himself from the beady eyes of the Ame Council. And he was _here, really here, looking at the not-so-distant faces of his soon-to-be-enemies. He carefully outstretched his hands in a sign of peace, trying to remember everything he could about Ame customs as he carefully flopped down onto the ground- a stance that wasn't submissive, just neutral.

He clapped his hands to the ground. They dirt was damp- his fingers unconsciously curled around them, and he relaxed fractionally. Earth. Forward. Energy, down, across, pull.

The dirt surged forward from either sides of the land, condensing into a dark-colored stone bridge. Naruto remembered to form little ridges at the sides when he was just finishing the formation, so it looked like brick. It wasn't too bad. Naruto didn't bother to test the strength as he walked across confidently, his eyes burning into the huddled crowd of representatives.

Concentration.

* * *

There were fourteen of them. It was the rules, the smaller the country, the larger the number of representatives. It was a great deal more complicated than that, of course, but it was a fairly simple way of putting it.

Naruto felt outnumbered.

He stared at them. They were very diverse- it seemed like what remained of the highest nobles of Ame had all come to the border. There were three men and two women who could be labeled as extremely old, another four who wavered between middle aged and old, three who looked to be in their early forties, and the last two were young. One was very young. She was about his age.

She interested him- not only because of her age, but her clothes. She was wearing a good kimono. Everyone was wearing a good kimono, but hers just screamed 'I've been handed down for generations and generations and generations and before that I was made by an extremely famous craftsman who is now legendary and used cloth making techniques that are now lost to man'. It was _exquisite_, and radiated old style. She wasn't wearing any jewelry except for her earrings; small glinting dots of blue pinned in her earlobes.

She was the only one whose smile looked halfway genuine.

Naruto turned his gaze away and searched the others. None of them were Konan. Not that he'd expected her to show up, but he admitted that it had been one of his... fears? No, he hadn't been afraid, just nervous about meeting someone who hated him enough to want to destroy his country in a place where he was supposed to stop that very thing from happening.

"Greetings." he said, and said the formal string of lilting syllables that was the traditional greeting from one stranger to another in a potentially hostile situation in Ame. They weren't expecting that, from the looks on their faces.

"Er." One of them murmured, and said the correct answer. Naruto smiled his best nice smile, and opened his mouth to say something-

Someone tapped his shoulder lightly.

It was the aged Hyuuga, his pearl colored eyes narrowed into a rheumy stare. "Our introductions." he said.

"Of course." Naruto said politely, and turned to the Ame nobles. "May I introduce-" he said, and for a split moment all that came to his mind were the derogatory nicknames he'd thought up for the Council elders- 'Ancient Tranny, Wrinkled Prune, Withered Old Hag-' "Hyuuga Koromu, Tsui..."

The names flowed out. Naruto fixed a warm, but not too warm smile on his face as he was invited to sit down at the table. It was a large enough table, but with only two chairs. The Konoha elders looked displeased at this, so Naruto flashed them a charming smile and touched the ground with one hand, signalling with the other the Ame sign for- well, one way reconciliation, one way apology, one way permission. The dirt rose up, condensed, and became makeshift blocks. They didn't make very good chairs- that had been slightly intentional on Naruto's part- but the elders look mollified.

A little.

Naruto concentrated. Thirteen similar blocks rose up from the ground on the other side. The Ame nobles murmured their thanks and made to sat down, rather slowly and suspiciously. The leader- Ame no Ikemaru, Naruto thought, remembering his picture. The eldest son of what had been the highest noble family in Ame before Pein took over. He wasn't the oldest of the nobles present, but he had the hardest eyes. The father wasn't there- perhaps he was dead. From most accounts, a strong, fair individual.

...From Jiraiya: 'A traditionalist pig-headed bastard with an overrated sense of justice.'

Naruto smiled, being careful not to show his teeth. "Sir."

The respectful term didn't seem to soften his face. In fact, it seemed to harden as Ikemaru stared at his... opponent. "Namikaze Naruto... san."

Naruto let the corners of his mouth twitch, and sat down.

He practically felt the eyebrows rise. There were no whispers, but he could feel the tension. He didn't concentrate, but he knew that if had he could have smelled the tension of the Konoha elders behind him, in the scent of sweat and other subtle odors... hormones, he'd always thought. Emotion-triggered hormones. Or maybe even demonic intuition...

He dragged his mind back to the subject again. Ikemaru was still standing, still glaring. It was customary in Ame- and in old Konoha as well, Naruto thought, but that had long since died out in his homeland- for the elder to sit down first. Having displayed proper knowledge of Ame customs already, Naruto's actions must have seemed to be frightfully contradictory. Naruto let them figure it out...

_I'm willing to be polite. I'm willing to compromise. But I am the more powerful. Keep that in mind._

...Naruto smiled, his expression subtly changing to send a new message.

_Be nice as well, and maybe we can get through this safely._

Ikemaru sat down, finally. "Namikaze Naruto-san." he repeated, rapping the table. A noble- no, not a noble, Naruto realized, taking a closer look at the kimono, which was made of rougher material and had small pale yellow flowers embroidered in the sleeves- a sort of secretary. She pulled a few crisp files from her robe. Naruto hadn't noticed the bulge, and reprimanded himself for inattention. Ikemaru took the files and opened the first one.

Instead of reading from the file- a list of his sins, Naruto had thought drolly- as he had expected, Ikemaru directly addressed him. "You are new at this." he said stiffly. "And I know from your reputation that you do not enjoy diplomacy. You are a ninja, ninja are not, by nature, diplomatic."

He was being patronizing. And Naruto could already see where he was going at, because instead of the indignity one might expect from people whose representative had just been insulted by an enemy, the Konoha elders were radiating satisfaction and smugness. The Hyuuga, in particular...

So, this was another power-play thingy. Sandaime had been testing his skills in the political field, trying to see how he'd react, having the carpet pulled from beneath him.

Naruto had no idea what the Sandaime wanted, truly. But to hell with it, Naruto thought. I'm here to stop a war. That's what my father would have said, by all accounts. I'm not my father, but...

It'll make a damn good excuse when Sarutobi-sensei asks me about it.

He met Ikemaru's eyes squarely, and curled his lip into a quarter of a half-smile.

"No."

And it sort of went downhill from there.

* * *

Schedule.

Arrive.

Talk.

Talk some more.

End the war.

Return home.

The next page would reveal the serious version of Naruto's schedule for the next five... (four by now) days. That is- decoded.

Arrive.

Day 1- Preliminary negotiations. (Don't talk about Pein yet.)

Day 2- Acquaint myself with the lesser nobles. Win over the pretty girls.

Day 3- Start talking in earnest about the war. Apologize fully for Pein's unfortunate demise (note to self: delete sarcasm) and offer payment. Offer economical assistance. Casually mention poor, starving people. (nts: Resist hinting that Pein could have done a better job with that...) Mention Hanzou's legacy, because they're nobles and they still haven't forgotten the old days. Etc.

Day 4a- Hopefully they've accepted the treaty. Now, settle the details. Reparation cost. Borderlines, if they start picking at that _again. Scouts. Etc.

Day 4b- If they flatly refused to make peace, go cold. Be frigidly polite, start hinting- (nts: Don't bother to be subtle) that they'd lose. Miserably. Guilt them about their poor economical situation.

Day 5a- Depart on good terms.

Day 5b- Grandly forgive their dithering yesterday. Accept treaty. Become nice again.

Day 5c- Worst case scenario... they refuse, again, again. Go home. Send signal on the way. Backtrack, and go after Konan myself... (refer to pg 52 for definite plans. Code F, variation number 3.)

Naruto sighed at the slender notebook and thumped his head against the desk. He crossed out the page with two diagonal angry black lines, and turned to page 54 and wrote-

Day 1- Preliminary negotiations: Snub Konoha elders, be rude to the Ame nobles. Practically rub it in their faces about their weak resources and decadent leadership. (nts: One pretty girl present...)

He stared. The single line didn't contain a quarter of what had really transpired. Good gods.

He turned to the page that held his _original_ schedule and crossed out Day 5c. He hadn't really been thinking well when he'd written that down, because he'd never thought 5c would _happen_. Now it seemed that it would, only as Day 2. Blast!

Anger surged forward, and his abdomen _seared_.

Naruto gritted his teeth and said a string of very rude things to Kyuubi.

_You're being an idiot, Namikaze_. A rather disgruntled demon growled into his mind. _I could handle this for you. Just let me out for a while. A few minutes. I can tear them down, every single one of them, and then I can take you to Ame- to Konan- in a flash._

Track down Konan. Kill her.

"Back to unsubtle tactics, Cube." Naruto said, his anger subsiding. The truth was that he _had_been placated- marginally, marginally! he defended himself- by Kyuubi's offer. It was the easy way out, and not the possible one.

His resident bijuu snarled. He hated being called Cube.

He twirled his pen. A ninja could have done that. Not the killing-the-diplomats part, but the hunting-Konan-down-myself part. He was not a ninja. He was a...

Not yet, but he _would_ be...

_Hokage._

And a Hokage didn't do things like that.

(No, a Hokage stayed at his big tower and dealt with paperwork all day when he wasn't going on strolls and accidentally meeting up with promising genin or chuunin to give random, inspiring speeches)

"Right." Naruto said at last, after deciding not to throw his pen across the space inside the tent. "Eff off for a moment so I can figure out what went wrong."

Kyuubi obeyed, reluctantly. It was like having a sulky thunderstorm withdraw from the sky. Naruto let out a small sigh of relief and clasped his pen again, turned to a fresh page, and wrote-

_'Stuff that went wrong today'_

Well... everything, really.

'The elders interfered'

He brooded for a while over that, and added 'But I should have dealt with that.'

'Ikemaru didn't think me a worthy negotiatior'

He connected his 'But I should have dealt with that' to his third sentence with an arrow. For a good measure, he connected it to the ends of all the other lines in his notebook as well. To be prepared.

He sighed.

_Remorse_ after _the mission, Naruto._He could imagine the Hokage standing sternly in front of him, and in this memory he was looking _up_ into the man's stern, shadowed face because he'd been ten years old and short for his age. _Find out how to fix it and_ then _beat yourself up about it. But not before._

Naruto frowned. That wasn't how Sarutobi Hiruzen had phrased it, but it was probably how he would tell it to his students- if he got any, of course. After this mission, he thought it wasn't likely-

He crossed out the thought in his mind and then thought, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere anyway. It wasn't something that had gone wrong, exactly, but...

What could he have done? He frowned. Gracefully handled the elders. Bring Ikemaru around. Yes? No. Certainly not. This was an impossible situation, he couldn't rule out the possibility Sandaime had sent him in here as a big fat test.

But not an impossible test, he could have done better...

Well, he'd alienated the Ame people. Or so he thought- he hadn't been rude, actually, just very firm that Konoha wouldn't be backing off. And of course they didn't like that. They'd brought up charges. Pein and so on. Naruto responded that Pein had been about to kill _him_. And had already killed several other jinchuuriki. At that point he found out that they weren't really aware about the jinchuuriki situation. And didn't care, either. They were prejudiced, he found that out then. They didn't like demon vessels.

Sandaime had to have known that.

And he'd snubbed the elders all the while, that wasn't good. He could only hope they'd die soon before they could make trouble for him. If he ever became Hokage at all, that was-

He sighed. Right, then. The really worrying thing was that Konan hadn't made her move, and he had used up most of his cards. And he had really no idea what to do.

Of course if they went to war they would win, but that wasn't the point...

He consoled himself by thinking that he hadn't made any really major mistakes- he just hadn't done anything well.

Which was just saying the same as incompetent.

...Konan hadn't made her move...

If I was Konan...

The only reason I wouldn't be present at the negotiation would be if...

She was scared of me....

If she had something better to do...

Like chat up to Iwa or Kumo or all those villages who don't really like Konoha, oh no, not at all.

But Sandaime had to know that- stop thinking about Sandaime, you have to stop thinking this doesn't matter because it's just a test-

He ground his teeth- this was _impossible_.

He made three clones, who looked very unhappy and cross when he told them they were to think about what to do on the following day- he usually didn't abuse his clones like this, after all, they were sort of _him_, not machines to order around- but right now he didn't care. He went to sleep.

* * *

I am aware that this isn't a terribly satisfying chapter.


End file.
